MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota sports columnist and radio personality Sid Hartman, an old-school home team booster who once ran the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers and achieved nearly as much celebrity as some of the athletes he covered, died Sunday.
Hartman, whose first newspaper column was published in 1945, died surrounded by his family, Star Tribune sports editor Chris Carr said.
After the Times folded in 1948, Hartman went to work at the Minneapolis Tribune covering his beloved University of Minnesota.
On the radio, Hartman would sometime hang up on or chastise callers — “geniuses,” as Hartman called them — who voiced opinions he disagreed with.
When his 100th birthday column was published, the Star Tribune put his career byline count at 21,149.