Bob Ryan

Personal background

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Ryan grew up in a house, "that revolved around going to games" and went to high school at the Lawrenceville School from 1960 to 1964. He graduated from Boston College as a history major in 1968. Ryan and his wife Elaine have a daughter Jessica, and a son Keith who died in 2008. They are grandparents of triplets. They have been married since 1969. Today, Ryan lives in Hingham, Massachusetts. The dedication page in Forty Eight Minutes, one of Ryan's books, says, "To Elaine Ryan: In the next life, maybe you'll get a nine-to-five man who makes seven figures." Ryan has also done humanitarian fundraisers for years to help inner-city teenagers with their educations.

Son's death

On January 28, 2008 his 37-year-old son Keith, was found dead in his home in Islamabad, Pakistan. Initial reports indicated that his death was an apparent suicide, however reports in the Pakistani newspapers Dawn and The News International indicated that Ryan's death may be investigated as a murder. A State Department spokesperson would only say the death was under investigation. Bob Ryan released the following statement: "Everyone is devastated. I am well aware of these reports and we are very concerned about that. (But) we have no reason at this time to doubt the official version".

Keith had been working in Pakistan since December 2006 as an attache for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Keith was a 1988 graduate of Hingham High School, Trinity College, the London School of Economics and Boston College Law School. He had previously worked for the U.S. Border Patrol, LAPD and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he was assigned to the violent gang task force. Keith was married to Kate and had three children, Conor, John, and Amelia, who live in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Celtics beat writer

In the fall of 1969 a vacancy on the Globe's Celtics beat was created, and Ryan got the job. While covering the Celtics, Ryan developed a close relationship with the Celtics organization. Ryan would even go out to dinner with the team. Ryan sat at the press table 8 seats from the Celtics' bench, where colleagues referred to him as the "Commissioner", not unlike Peter Gammons's nickname. Boston Sports Media critic Bruce Allen has said, "His passion is not faked."

One night Hue Hollins, the referee, went to the press table to explain a call to Ryan during a time-out even though he was not obligated to. Another time Ryan wrote a column about the Washington Bullets' Rick Mahorn and how he played dirty under the hoop. When Mahorn was called for a foul Gene Shue, the Bullets' coach, turned around and said, "That's your fault, Bob Ryan, your fault!" Dennis Johnson was often annoyed with Ryan and would go up to the press table and say, "Hey, Bob, keep it down. We got a game going on here" when Ryan sideline coached. From Ryan's first column on Larry Bird headlined "Celtics draft Bird for oh what a future" to his last "Larry! Larry! Larry!" Ryan was always a fan of his and eventually co-authored a book with him.

In Tom (Tommy) Heinsohn's book Give 'em the Hook, Heinsohn is negative towards Ryan. Ryan, who began writing for the Globe in Heinsohn's rookie season as a coach, would make friends with the players and vent their feelings towards Heinsohn, their fans, and their teammates, claims Heinsohn. Heinsohn didn't like how he didn't feel in control of his team. Heinsohn believes that Ryan started to "think of himself as another member of the family" and that he even started coaching the team through his beat stories. Heinsohn goes on to talk about Ryan's bloated ego and the fact that he was then thinking of himself as a basketball guru. Heinsohn also says while noting disapproval of Ryan that at the time anyone who lived in Boston and even remotely followed basketball read Bob Ryan. In recent years Ryan has been less critical of Celtics coaches, including Doc Rivers, of whom he said, "I'm a Doc guy."

General sports columnist

In 1982 Ryan would hand the torch of the Globe Celtics beat to then-not well known Dan Shaughnessy, and later Jackie MacMullan. He did this in order to go to WCVB for a couple of years. Ryan ended up hating it and moved back to the Celtics beat in 1984 for two more seasons before getting promoted to general sports columnist in 1989.

Ryan would cover 20 NBA finals, 20 Final Fours, nine World Series, five Super Bowls, the last seven Olympics and many other events. In recent times Ryan has become less basketball-oriented and more general sports-oriented. He continues to write for Basketball Times. Ryan votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Awards

Retirement

At 60, Ryan wants his retirement from the job to be graceful: "I’m not bitter. I enjoy my job and I still think I do it well, but they are chipping away, chipping away and they are making it far less pleasurable. I want to get out when I feel like getting out. If you stay around too long, there is no way you can dictate your terms," he said. Ryan also asked, "How do you explain to Stephen A. Smith that he has no idea of the game and how much fun it was? He thinks he knows everything, but he will never know what I know about the Celtics."

On February 14, 2012, during a podcast with Bill Simmons on Grantland.com, Ryan announced that he would retire after the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Said Ryan, "I really and truly believe that my time has come and gone; that the dynamics of the business, of what it takes, what it means to be involved in the sports business with all the Tweeting and the blogging and all the stuff, and an audience with a different taste - it's not me anymore. I'm not comfortable." Ryan indicated that he would stay involved with sports in a part-time capacity after retirement, but is not interested in continuing at the pace he does now. Ryan's last day as a Red Sox reporter was July 16, 2012.

Ryan's final column in The Boston Globe was published August 12, 2012. He will remain columnist emeritus and write on a part-time basis. He also will remain on ESPN's "Around The Horn" and occasionally guest hosts ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" with Michael Wilbon or Tony Kornheiser.

Globe 10.0

On June 26, 2007 Bob Ryan's show, Globe 10.0, made its premiere on the New England Sports Network. The half hour show, which airs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, features Ryan interviewing different Boston Globe sports writers on ten issues related to New England sports. It was canceled by NESN in December 2008, but continued on the Boston Globe website.

Radio

Television

In addition Bill Simmons has called him "the best basketball writer ever." Paul Silas joked on Cold Pizza while Ryan was a guest, that all Bob Ryan's success was due to him.

Joumana Kidd comments

In May 2003, Ryan appeared on Sports Final, a local sports talk show airing on WBZ-TV. At that time, Ryan said that Joumana Kidd, then-wife of then-New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd needed someone to "smack" her for taking her son T.J., then 4 years old, to NBA play-off night games where they could be taunted. He accused Joumana of being an exhibitionist and using the child as a prop to get television time. The show's host, Bob Lobel, asked Ryan to retract his statement immediately:

The comments struck a chord because in 2001, Joumana Kidd had been the victim of Domestic violence by her husband, Jason Kidd. Ryan returned to Boston to meet with executives at the Globe. Ryan publicly apologized, but the Globe still suspended him and barred him from television for one month. "Four weeks took my breath away. But I’ll abide by it," he later said. Then Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney chastised Ryan for his comments.

Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald defended Ryan while Herald Ombudsman Jim Baker did not. The Boston Phoenix called it a "moment of temporary insanity." Ryan later said, "I'm angry with myself forgetting in the heat of battle that the woman had been hit."

2006 Final Four column

Ryan made a mistake in 2006 when he wrote a column promoting the Final Four matchup of Louisiana State University and George Mason University, and recommending fans tune to see two of the biggest players in college basketball, LSU's Glen Big Baby Davis (a former Boston Celtic) and George Mason's Jai Lewis. However, LSU and George Mason were on different sides of the NCAA Bracket and were not scheduled to play one another. The Globe did not find this error and the inaccurate column was run in the Globe. Ryan referred to this incident on ESPN's Around the Horn, when discussing a topic about making mistakes, on April 27, 2010. However, he would not reveal what the incident was, saying that any viewers who wanted to know about his March Madness error could check Wikipedia and find out for themselves.

Theo Epstein confrontation

Ryan had a run-in with Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. In November 2006 he had a small unfriendly exchange with Epstein saying "on behalf of an eager constituency, I hope the rumor (of a J. D. Drew deal) isn't true." Curt Schilling would call into Dennis and Callahan and criticize Ryan, but NBC Sports's Tom Curran sided with Ryan.

Books