<\/p>\nAdd Preferred Source<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
Retired Mercury News columnist Mark Purdy termed Newhouse \u201cthe best of us, in so many ways.\u201d Purdy arrived in the Bay Area from the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1984 and he became emotional in a phone interview Friday night when recalling how Newhouse looked out for a just-arrived rival columnist.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was always Dave,\u201d Purdy said. \u201cHe always wanted to know about your family. And there was the other stuff like, \u2018Here\u2019s how this works around here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler said Newhouse wasn\u2019t a columnist who was particularly interested in ripping sports figures, preferring to \u201cbuild up sports.\u201d Newhouse took the same approach with those he wasn\u2019t covering.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very helpful to all his colleagues,\u201d Ostler said. \u201cThat can be common in our profession, but Dave stood out. He always gave people a lot of encouragement. And it was genuine. Specific things. He\u2019d give you ideas: \u2018Hey, this would be right up your wheelhouse. You should try this.\u2019 A really good, smart, intelligent, fun guy who was a leader in our fraternity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newhouse\u2019s books include \u201cFounding 49ers,\u201d which detailed the early years of the franchise from their founding in 1946 until their launching of their dynasty in the early \u201980s. He wrote about Bay Area sprinter Eddie Hart, a gold medal favorite in the 100 meters at 1972 Summer Olympics who was disqualified after arriving late to the stadium. And flamboyant St. Mary\u2019s football coach Slip Madigan, who played for Knute Rockne at Notre Dame and led the powerhouse Gaels in the 1920s and 1930s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the preeminent Bay Area sports historians,\u201d Ostler said. \u201cHe covered a lot of history that would have been lost had it not been for Dave. Those old 49ers from the start of the franchise. He found all those old guys and got their stories out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Purdy noted Newhouse spent much of his Tribune career writing during a pre-internet time when a newspaper columnist had significant influence in the community. And he wielded his power well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was kind of one of those North Stars of where our profession should be aimed,\u201d Purdy said. \u201cIt\u2019s not as much this way now, but we\u2019re supposed to be the tour guides for our readers of, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s what\u2019s going on. Here\u2019s what\u2019s interesting. And you should be interested in it.\u2019 Dave was a great guide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Newhouse wrote for the Oakland Tribune from 1964-2011. Laura Oda Dave Newhouse, a prolific author and an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,10374,296,127],"class_list":["post-222799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-obituary","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}