It’s a sad day and a loss for area sports fans. Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor for the past 15 years, is leaving Lawrence for a position as a sports columnist for the Boston Herald.
He will be missed by readers who appreciated his good writing, his first-hand knowledge of a wide range of sports and his connections with sports leaders throughout the country. His fans appreciated his impartial analysis of what was going on in the local sports scene.
Keegan was supportive of Kansas University and Lawrence sports programs, particularly the players, and he wanted the various teams to win. However, he was not a writer wearing blinders to please coaches, parents or rabid sports enthusiasts.
At the university level, too many coaches and athletic directors love the limelight and public adulation, they don’t like to be questioned about their actions and policies and are quick to dismiss or disparage writers such as Keegan.
Keegan enjoys an impressive career in the sports writing field with senior positions in Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Orange County, California. He also co-hosted an ESPN radio program in New York and was a frequent radio and television commentator in Topeka and Kansas City.
He is a graduate of Marquette University and spent a year studying in Rome at Loyola University Rome Center.
The Journal-World has been fortunate to have had top-flight, nationally recognized sports editors such as the late Bill Mayer, the late Chuck Woodling and Keegan. They all helped to make the Journal-World a better newspaper and the teams they covered benefited because of the excellent, accurate coverage by these writers.