Former Detroit News columnist and Independence Township resident Joe Falls died Aug. 11 at age 76 due to heart failure after a battle with diabetes.
Falls had a 58-year career in sports journalism before retiring last year. The writing legend authored 18 books. He was only the second newspaperman voted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
One of the highlights of Falls? career was a July 2002 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for ‘meritorious contributions to baseball writing.? Falls covered the Tigers for 49 years and had been in 50 major league ballparks and covered 40 World Series.
At the time of his induction, Falls told The Clarkston News, ‘I remember going to ball games as a kid in Yankee Stadium and Ebbets Field and sitting 500 feet from the action. To bridge that gap between that kid in the bleachers and Cooperstown is amazing. I never thought about it. I just loved baseball so much. I loved it for the game’s sake. When I was a kid writers were my heroes, not the players.?
His long journey began in New York in 1946. He started with the Associated Press as a sports copy boy. After working for the New York and Detroit AP, Falls moved on to the Detroit Times in 1956. From there, Falls worked for the Detroit Free Press from 1960-78 and was at the News until his retirement in 2003.
Falls is survived by this wife, Mary Jane, their daughter Leslie and granddaughter Mia.
The couple moved to Independence Township in 1977. In a Dec. 5, 2001 article in The Clarkston News, Falls said the couple was looking for a house when they fell in love with the area. He said the couple was hooked on the town the minute they saw it.
‘It was an immediate feeling. I saw it and said ‘where else do we want to be.? I love Clarkston. These are real decent people,? Falls said.
A Funeral Mass was held at St. Thomas More Church. Memorials can be made to the Joe Falls Memorial Scholarship for School of Journalism at Michigan State University, 305 Communications Arts Building, MSU, East Lansing, 48824.