Arthur Melvin Spander is an American sports writer. He is a free-lance columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. In 1999, he was awarded the McCann Award, earning him a spot in the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...

and in 2007 he was honored with the Masters Major Achievement Award. Spander began his career as a news writer for

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...

in Los Angeles in 1960, and started writing sports full-time in 1963 for the Santa Monica Outlook where he was the beat writer for the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Dodgers and covered UCLA and USC football and basketball. In 1965 he moved to the

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

, where he covered golf, football, baseball and basketball. Spander became the lead sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner in 1979. Spander has covered 50 consecutive Masters Tournaments, 40

Super Bowls The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

, 47 U.S. Open Golf Tournaments, 36

British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

Golf Tournaments, 33 Wimbledons, 20

US Open tennis The US Open Tennis Championships is a hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Queens, New York. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year. The other three, in chronological ord ...

and 34 Final Fours. He has also attended 64 consecutive

Rose Bowls The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Rose ...

, initially as a spectator and vendor and the last 54 as a journalist. In addition to his newspaper work, Spander is a contributor to various sports magazines. He is also a frequent commentator on sports talk radio. Spander had a regular gig on ESPN radio in the late 1990s and is often on the

Gary Radnich Gary Kelley Radunich (born February 2, 1950), known as Gary Radnich, is a retired radio and television host in the San Francisco bay area. He hosted ''The Gary Radnich Show'' which ran weekday mornings on KNBR radio, and was the lead sports anc ...

Show on KNBR 680 in San Francisco. He has also written or co-authored three books: "Golf The Passion and The Challenge" with Mark Mulvoy, 1977; "The Art Spander Collection", foreword by

Al Michaels Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for '' Thursday Night Football'' on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on n ...

, 1989, Taylor Publishing; and "Keeping On Course, Golf Tips on Avoiding the Sandtraps of Today's Business World" with Gary Shemano, 1997 McGraw-Hill. Spander recently wrote the foreword for "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Los Angeles Lakers: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from Los Angeles Lakers History", written by Steve Travers, 2007, Triumph Books. Born in Los Angeles, CA, Spander is a graduate of Dorsey High School and UCLA. Spander and his wife Liz reside in Piedmont, Calif. He has two daughters, Wendy, a publicist for Electronic Arts, and Debbie, a sports and entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles.

Honors and legacy

He was voted "California Sports Writer of the Year" by his peers in 1980. He is the only person to win Golf Writers Association of America first-place awards in each of five decades. On August 22, 2016, The Tournament of Roses announced Bobby Bell, Ricky Ervins, Tommy Prothro, and Art Spander would be inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in the Class of 2016. The Rose Bowl Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony then took place on January 1, 2017, outside the Rose Bowl Stadium, one day before the kickoff of the 103rd Rose Bowl Game on Monday January 2, 2017.

References

*Updated at the time of this year US Open tennis championships. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spander, Art Living people Dick McCann Memorial Award recipients Golf writers and broadcasters Jewish American writers People from Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles alumni Sportswriters from California San Francisco Chronicle people San Francisco Examiner people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American Jews