Jack Fiske
Jack Fiske, a Hall of Fame boxing writer, was born Jacob Quincy Finkelstein in New York City on July 15, 1917. He served as a medic in the Army Air Corps in Australia and New Guinea during World War II. After leaving the service, Fiske attended the University of Alabama, where he studied journalism and managed the school boxing team. One member of the boxing team was George Wallace, the future four-term governor of Alabama and four-time presidential candidate. The left-wing writer and the segregationist politician couldn't have been more diametrically opposed politically, but Fiske would later praise the ring capabilities of Wallace, who won the Alabama Golden Gloves bantamweight championship in 1936 and 1937.
Fiske worked for the Birmingham Post (AL), Newport News Daily Press (VA), Trenton Trentonian (NJ), Alameda Times-Star (CA) and Richmond Independent (CA) before joining the San Francisco Chronicle in 1950.
He would jot notes at boxing matches on a single sheet of paper, then dictate his reports to the newspaper from a pay phone. Many considered Fiske to be the premier boxing beat writer in the United States.
"The Punching Bag," Fiske's twice-weekly (Tuesday and Saturday) column for the Chronicle, was one of the most circularized boxing columns in the world and was regarded as the most consistent daily source of boxing news in the United States.
Fiske also reported on hockey for the Chronicle. He started covering the San Francisco Seals (later the California Seals) of the Western Hockey League in 1961 and continued to cover the team when it became part of the National Hockey League in 1967. The team changed its name to the Oakland Seals and then the California Golden Seals before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1976.
The toothpick-chewing Fiske, who possessed a huge collection of boxing memorabilia, was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of boxing and keen eye for detail.
Hall of Fame referee Arthur Mercante Jr. said, "Jack Fiske was a brilliant writer. He said what he wanted to say in no uncertain terms."
"Jack was a real throwback," said promoter Bob Arum. "He was exceptionally knowledgeable about the sport of boxing. Even while he was interviewing you, you would learn more from him than he would from you."
"He was a great talent, a great man," said trainer Angelo Dundee. "We spoke every week. I respected the hell out of him. He was such a great brain on boxing. We needed guys like him in boxing. He was at all the big fights. We didn't always agree, but he was a hell of an analyst."
Trainer and manager Emanuel Steward said, "He was known as a straight-up guy. If he had to hurt somebody's feelings, he didn't mind doing that. He told it like it was. That's why he was so well-respected. He was the voice of boxing on the West Coast, and he was also the historian of boxing."
"What was unique about Jack Fiske was his honesty," said boxing publicist Bill Caplan. "His early career was at a time when writers would take money from promoters. The word was out in the early '60s: If you offered him money, you were dead with him."
"He was the most honorable sportswriter who ever lived," said promoter Al Bachman. "He wouldn't take a dime from anybody."
The Boxing Writers Association of America awarded Fiske with the James J. Walker Memorial Award for "long and meritorious service in boxing" in 1987.
Fiske retired from the Chronicle in 1993. He began his farewell column in typical Fiske fashion: "Before I go, listen up." He railed against the warring boxing federations, weak-kneed state boxing commissions, incompetent referees, TV officials who gave promoters too much attention and sports editors who gave boxing too little.
Fiske continued to write columns for Professional Boxing Update, Virgil Thrasher's trade paper, until the late 1990s. (He also covered hockey for many years.) He possessed a huge collection of boxing memorabilia.
In 2003, Fiske was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (Observer Category) and the World Boxing Hall of Fame (Expanded Category).
Fiske was the last of a long line of great boxing writers in San Francisco, which included Bill Naughton and Harry B. Smith of the Chronicle, Marlan Salazar of the Bulletin and Eddie Muller of the Examiner.
Fiske died on January 24, 2006, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 88.
He was survived by his son, David Finkelstein of San Francisco, and his daughter, Linda Guerrero of San Jose.