Harold P. “Hal” Lebovitz, Cleveland, Ohio Sportswriter And Columnist

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Harold P. “Hal” Lebovitz. 1916 ~ 2005.

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Blog Created: 3-24-2024

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Hal Lebovitz (September 11, 1916 – October 18, 2005) was a sportswriter and columnist. He was a fixture on Cleveland, Ohio's sports scene for more than six decades. In 2000, he was inducted into the writer's wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Born in Cleveland, he graduated from Glenville High School in 1934 and went on to Western Reserve University where he received a degree in chemistry. He had always wanted to be a journalist, and he became the sports editor of the school newspaper.

He got his first job covering high school sports for the Cleveland News in 1942 and soon became a beat writer covering the Cleveland Browns and the Cleveland Indians. He was hired by The Plain Dealer in 1960 and was the paper's sports editor from 1964 to 1982. His writing continued to appear regularly in The News-Herald and The Morning Journal (Lorain, Ohio) until his death in 2005 at the age of 89. (One of his columns, asserting that "any boy who turns out to play football should have his chance to play, somewhere, somehow", was quoted by the comic strip Gil Thorp on August 29, 1970.)

He also coached baseball, basketball, and football and officiated all three sports, including a stint as a referee traveling with the Harlem Globetrotters. He was famous for his great knowledge of sports rules and wrote a popular newspaper column, "Ask Hal the Referee" which ran in both The Plain Dealer and The Sporting News, in which he answered intricate questions about sports rules.

His writing was featured 17 times in the annual Best Sports Stories and selected for numerous other anthologies. He won many writing awards and was inducted into 12 halls of fame.

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By David S. Glasie for the News Herald ~

In what turned out to be his final column, Hal Lebovitz earlier this month marveled at what happened immediately after the Indians' season-ending loss at Jacobs Field. He wrote that fans "deserved an ovation" for the way they stood and cheered for the home team despite obvious disappointment over the final dashing of playoff dreams. Today, it's the legendary sports columnist, reporter and editor getting an ovation in the form of stirring tributes from friends and colleagues.

Lebovitz, 89, died early Tuesday after an extended battle with cancer.

Born in Cleveland Sept. 11, 1916, Harold "Hal" Lebovitz was a longtime resident of University Heights. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Margie; his son, Neil Lebovitz of Cleveland Heights; and his daughter, Lynn Lebovitz of Chester Township. Funeral services will be private. "My condolences go out to the Lebovitz family," said Steve Roszczyk, publisher of The News-Herald. "Hal was a legend. Most of our readers know him as one of, if not the, greatest columnist in Cleveland sports history," Roszczyk added. "To those who were lucky enough to know him personally, Hal was so much more. "His kindness, generosity and sincerity were matched only by his humility. Hal Lebovitz was truly a great man. It was an honor to have known him. We'll miss him." Lebovitz was the featured sports columnist for The News-Herald and its sister paper, The Morning Journal of Lorain, since 1984. His Sunday and Monday columns ran the gamut of sports with special emphasis on the Indians, Browns and Cavaliers. He also authored the popular "Ask Hal" columns that answered reader questions about sports rules. In 2000, Lebovitz was inducted into the writers wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Plaudits ~

Lebovitz's career as a Cleveland sports journalist spanned 63 years and four generations of readers. "No one ever had a finger on the pulse of sports fans in this town the way Hal did. That was his greatest strength," said Dan Coughlin, a WJW-TV 8 sports reporter and former Plain Dealer sportswriter. After breaking into the business with the Cleveland News in 1942, Lebovitz worked at the afternoon paper until it went out of business in January 1960. He was the Indians beat writer through most of those years, and covered the Browns. "Hal was a real journalist. He grew up in a time when newspapers were kings and always kept the sense that the printed word was magic," said Bob DiBiasio, Indians vice president of public relations. Lebovitz was hired by the Plain Dealer the day after the News folded. He was named sports editor in 1964 and held that job until his retirement from the paper in 1984. "Hal was the hardest-working, most competitive sportswriter I ever knew," said Russell Schneider, a retired Plain Dealer sportswriter and author of "The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia." "He had more sources and contacts than you could possibly imagine," Schneider added. "You believed what he wrote. I can't think of a better tribute for any sportswriter." In addition to the "Ask Hal, the Referee" features running weekly in the Sporting News from 1957 to 1993, Lebovitz for many of those years was the Indians correspondent for the St. Louis-based magazine. During the 1960s, one of the faithful readers of the Sporting News and "Ask Hal, the Referee," was Bob Costas, an avid baseball fan from the New York City borough of Queens. Years later, when he became a successful sports announcer for NBC, Costas met Lebovitz and subsequently crossed paths with him on various occasions. "There was a robustness about Hal, a bounce in his step," Costas said. "He was a straight shooter, not a pot-shot artist. He was the kind of guy who got respect not just for his versatility and knowledge, but for his integrity." As NBC's lead play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball, Costas said he twice called Lebovitz at home to get a clarification on a rules question that came up during a telecast. "Hal was the go-to guy when it came to the rules of baseball," Costas said. Even as his health deteriorated, Lebovitz kept writing columns and making regular appearances on "More Sports & Les Levine," a television talk show airing at 6 p.m. weekdays on Adelphia Cable access Channel 15 in Lake and Cuyahoga counties. "Hal really defined sports knowledge for everyone in my generation. If he wrote it, it was gospel," Levine said. "His death marks the end of an era."

Formative years ~

Like most boys in the Glenville and West Side neighborhoods where he lived, Lebovitz played pickup baseball, football and basketball. "I have a passion for sports. It's been part of my life in all ways," Lebovitz said in a 1999 interview. Looking back on his younger days, Lebovitz spoke fondly of summer afternoons spent watching the Indians at League Park on Lexington Avenue. He admired the way Hall of Famer Tris Speaker and Charlie Jamieson patrolled the outfield for the Indians. From his usual perch in the left-field bleachers, Lebovitz also watched Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees, Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers and others of the game's greats from the 1920s and '30s in action. By the time he was at Glenville High School, Lebovitz was accumulating money for college tuition by working as a vendor at League Park. On one particularly memorable afternoon when the Yankees were in town, Lebovitz recalled that Ruth was out of the lineup and sitting in the seats behind home plate. "He (Ruth) called me over a number of times. I'd guess he bought about a dozen hot dogs from me that day," Lebovitz said in a 2000 interview. Lebovitz was an outstanding student at Glenville High School while playing on the varsity football, baseball and basketball teams. After graduating from Glenville in 1934, he enrolled at Western Reserve University. A chemistry major, the 6-foot-3 Lebovitz was the starting center on talented WRU teams coached by Roy Clifford. Back then, Lebovitz and his WRU teammates played Stanford, Michigan State and other big-name opponents. Tellingly, the busy student and athlete somehow found time to serve as sports editor of the WRU newspaper, the Reserve Tribune. Clifford thought so highly of Lebovitz that he asked him to stay on after graduation in 1938 to coach the WRU freshman basketball team. Among the players on that undefeated squad was Steve Belichick, father of future Browns coach Bill Belichick.

Getting started ~

In the summer of 1938, the nation was still in the grips of the Great Depression when the newly married Lebovitz landed a job at Euclid Central High School. For a weekly salary of $25, Lebovitz taught chemistry and math, supervised homeroom and study hall, served as an academic counselor and helped coach the basketball, football and baseball teams. To supplement that modest income and to stay active in sports, Lebovitz umpired sandlot baseball games. He also officiated baseball and basketball games for junior high schools, high schools and colleges. In 1938, while coaching baseball at Euclid Central, Lebovitz starting collecting box scores from the 25 schools in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Baseball League. He struck a deal with the sports editor of the Cleveland Press to run the batting averages and pitching statistics that he compiled from those box scores. The Press also agreed to purchase trophies for the winning teams and individual statistical leaders. Four years later, the Cleveland News offered Lebovitz $15 a week to write a thrice-weekly notes package about local high school sports. By 1944, the pay was raised to $25 and Lebovitz got his first byline. Lebovitz came to a fork in the road in 1946, when the News offered him a full-time job as science writer for $75 a week. As much as he loved teaching, Lebovitz couldn't pass up the money and the opportunity to have a career in journalism. News Sports Editor Herman Goldstein loved the fact that Lebovitz was a go-getter and argued for the newcomer to stay in his department instead of getting moved to the science beat. For the rest of his life, the Cleveland sports scene was Lebovitz's domain.

More plaudits ~

Schneider fought back tears recalling his long relationship with Lebovitz. Schneider was a copy boy at the News in 1945 when he met Lebovitz. They were teammates on a basketball team in the Cleveland Industrial League. "Hal was like a coach on the floor," Schneider said. When he finished a three-year hitch in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1949, Schneider signed a minor-league contact with the Indians. Lebovitz, by then a full-timer at the News, arranged to have Schneider paid $100 to write a series of 32 stories from spring training in Florida called "Report from a Rookie." Schneider didn't make it as a professional ballplayer, but he got a job as a sportswriter at the Plain Dealer in 1955. The two were reunited professionally when Lebovitz joined the Plain Dealer in 1960. Lebovitz covered the Indians until 1964, when he succeeded Gordon Cobbledick as sports editor. One of the first moves Lebovitz made as sports editor was naming Schneider to follow him on the Indians beat. When the franchise was struggling on the field and at the gate in the 1960s and early '70s, Schneider said Lebovitz deftly used the power of the paper "at least four times" to dissuade owners of the Indians from moving the team elsewhere. Lebovitz was just as passionate about the Browns. He never again spoke to longtime friend and Browns owner Art Modell after Modell moved the team in 1995 from Cleveland to Baltimore. "Hal was aggressive, but he was a great boss because you always knew exactly where you stood with him," Schneider said. Retired Plain Dealer sportswriters Bill Nichols and Dick Zunt have similarly warm memories of their former boss. Nichols was the Cavaliers' beat writer during the 1976-77 "Miracle of Richfield" season. "Hal gave me a lot of breaks and honored me with space and freedom," Nichols said. "He pulled no punches and wore his heart on his sleeve. I loved the man." Zunt, who covered prep sports, said Lebovitz was an unwavering champion of that beat. "Hal knew the heart of the Greater Cleveland area and appreciated the importance of high school athletics to the people who live here," Zunt said.

Legacy assured ~

It never occurred to Lebovitz to slow down or rest on his laurels when he left the Plain Dealer. He immediately started working for The News-Herald and The Morning Journal. His Sunday column, full of news, views and insights, was immensely popular with readers of this newspaper. It also was a can't-miss proposition for many of the leading figures in Cleveland sports who paid little or no heed to other sports columnists. To gather material for the Sunday column, Lebovitz would go to games and practices whenever possible during the week. Then, on Friday morning, he'd get on the phone and touch base with a roster of contacts that was the envy of every sports reporter in town. "From a professional and personal standpoint, Friday will never be the same for me," Bob DiBiasio said. "It was a badge of honor to be on Hal's call list." Lebovitz is a member of halls of fame administered by the Cleveland Press Club, Sigma Delta Chi, Case Western Reserve University, Glenville High School, Euclid High School and the Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio. He was a 1999 inductee into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame, along with former Browns offensive lineman Gene Hickerson, former Indians slugger Andre Thornton, college and pro football great John Hicks, figure skater Tonia Kwiatkowski, boxer Jackie Keough, auto-racing impresario Roger Penske and Cleveland sandlot baseball legend Nobby Lewandowski. "It's an honor to be inducted because I'll be with all these top-notch people," Lebovitz said at the time. Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame vice president Merle Levin knew Lebovitz for 50 years and characterized such displays of modesty as typical. "Hal was extremely appreciative of all the honors that came his way," Levin said. Lebovitz's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July 2000 was an especially important milestone in a career full of them. He said the ceremony at Cooperstown was an "out-of-body experience." Previous inductees to the writers wing included Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice, Damon Runyan, Red Smith, Shirley Povich, Jim Murray and Cobbledick. "The amazing thing about Hal and those guys is how much of the game's history they witnessed," Bob Costas said. A devoted husband and father who enjoyed going to movies and plays, Lebovitz jogged or exercised daily well into his 80s. He loved life and meant every word of his customary column sign-off, "Stay well and see you somewhere, I hope."

Some material for this tribute was obtained from: The News-Herald archives; www.clevelandseniors.com, Debbie Hanson; CWRU Magazine, Anthony Benedictis.