John Feinstein, Acclaimed Sports Columnist and Author, Dies at 69

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John Feinstein, the well-known sportswriter and columnist for The Washington Post who gained acclaim by spending a season with Coach Bobby Knight of Indiana University’s men’s basketball team to write the highly respected book “A Season on the Brink” in 1986, passed away on Thursday. He was 69 years old.

It was reported by the Post that Feinstein passed away at the residence of his brother, Robert Feinstein, in McLean, Virginia. The specific reason for his demise was initially unspecified.

On Wednesday, he submitted an article about long-standing Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo for publication in a newspaper.

Feinstein has authored over forty books, such as “A Season Inside” published in 1988, which delves into college basketball; “A Good Walk Spoiled,” a 1995 work focusing on the PGA Tour; “Hard Courts,” from 1990, exploring professional tennis; “A Civil War,” penned in 1996, detailing the events leading to the 1995 Army-Navy football game; “Caddy for Life: The Bruce Edwards Story,” published in 2004, that tells the tale of Tom Watson’s caddy and his battle with ALS; and lastly, “Where Nobody Knows Your Name” from 2014, which centers around minor league baseball.

Both A Season on the Brink and A Good Walk Spoiled were No. 1 New York Times Best Sellers.

Feinstein frequently led readers behind-the-scenes to locations typically off-limits to many fans – such as locker rooms, coaches’ private offices, airplanes carrying the teams, and their bus journeys.

Among three siblings, Feinstein was born in the bustling city of New York. His dad, Martin, initially served as the inaugural executive director of the Kennedy Center, later moving on to manage the Washington National Opera from 1980 to 1995.

In 1977, following his graduation from Duke University, Feinstein started working at the Post newspaper that same year, primarily focusing on nightly police reports. However, he also delved into court and political coverage. Eventually, he moved to the sports department.

Following his position as a college basketball writer for the Post, Feinstein stepped away from the newspaper in 1985 to spend six months residing in Bloomington, Indiana, where he immersed himself with Knight and the Hoosiers. (He received an advance of $17,500, as mentioned in a 2011 interview.)

He mentioned that while he anticipated the venture of writing the book might lead to financial loss, his primary motivation was simply to write. He believed the book could be good, and in writing it, he aimed for it to succeed enough to secure an opportunity for a second book. Beyond that, he had no grander aspirations.

Later on, the author found out that the coach had not communicated with him for eight years following the release of “A Season on the Brink“, apparently displeased because he discovered coarse language in the book.

A Season on the Brink was adapted for a 2002 ESPN telefilm that starred Brian Dennehy as Knight.

Throughout 1991, Feinstein served as a full-time employee at the Post. Additionally, he penned articles for both Golf Digest and Sports Illustrated, and contributed commentary to NPR, ESPN, The Golf Channel, and SiriusXM. Furthermore, he is recognized for authoring a sequence of sports-mystery novels aimed at young readers.

In 2013, he was honored with induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Additionally, he holds membership in both the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame and the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame.

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2025-03-13 22:56