Art Spander ’60

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Art Spander enjoys an active career that most would envy. He applies his exceptional writing ability to sports, a field he is passionate about, on behalf of prestigious publications and news outlets around the world.

Spander began his career as a news writer for United Press International in 1960. But in 1963, he took his first step toward earning the title one of the “greatest sports journalists in the country,” moving to the Santa Monica Outlook as a sportswriter covering the L.A. Rams and Dodgers. In 1965, he joined the San Francisco Chronicle to cover golf, football, baseball and basketball, and then in 1979 he signed on as the lead sports columnist at the San Francisco Examiner. He has written for the London Daily Telegraph, Oakland Tribune, The Sporting News, RealClearSports.com and CBS.com, and he is a contributor to television’s KTVU in San Francisco, on sports talk radio and to various sports magazines. He has collaborated on three books, wrote the forward to another, and his articles appeared in The Best American Sports Stories anthology 11 times.

Highly respected as a journalist, Spander covered many of the biggest events in sports, including 58 consecutive Rose Bowls, 45 consecutive Masters Tournaments, 42 U.S. Opens, 34 Super Bowls, 29 consecutive Final Fours, 27 Wimbledons, 15 World Series, 30 British Opens and 11 U.S. Open tennis tournaments.

Spander garnered such honors as the PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award; Masters Major Achievement Award; Hayward-Newland Award for Lifetime Achievement, presented by the California Golf Writers Association, and the 1999 McCann Award, which earned him a spot in the Professional Football Hall of Fame. In 1980, he was named California Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association, and over his career he has received six first-place and 15 second-place awards from the Golf Writers Association of America. In the 2011 Final Four , he was inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame.

Spander also has served as a board member of the Golf Writers Association of America since 2000 (president from 2005-2007), and the United States Tennis Writers Association, and has been a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and Baseball Writers of America. A generous mentor to sports journalists, he saw his profession as an important bridge between the teams, players, business and fans.

Active as a student, Spander was a member of the men’s lower and upper division honor societies (Yeomen and Gold Key), and the ASUCLA News Bureau. A baseball and basketball announcer, and both news and sports editor for the Daily Bruin, he also was named Outstanding Junior and Best Sports Writer.

Spander succeeded in melding his talent and his passion into a life of remarkable professional achievement.