Christopher John Dufresne (April 11, 1958May 25, 2020) was an American sports journalist who was the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' national college football and basketball columnist from 1995 to 2015. He won multiple awards and was the 2011 California Sportswriter of the Year by the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Pr ...

Biography

Chris was born in

Fullerton, California Fullerton ( ) is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617. Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Sa ...

, and grew up in

La Habra La Habra (archaic spelling of ''La Abra'', ) is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County, California, United States. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,239. A related city, La Habra Heights, is located to the north of ...

. He graduated from

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

in 1981 with a degree in journalism. In 1976, after high school, Dufresne got a job at the ''Los Angeles Times'', where his father worked in the transportation department for 37 years. Dufresne started in the loading docks, then became a clerk covering prep sports at the Los Angeles Times Orange County bureau in 1981. He covered

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for ''The Times'' until 2015, when he accepted a

buyout In finance, a buyout is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" the present equity holders of the target company. A buyout ...

. Dufresne continued to write and in 2016 found a new home for his alter ego, Rankman. He and three other award-winning sports writers, Tony Barnhart, Mark Blaudschun and Herb Gould co-founded TMGcollegesports.com, a national college football and basketball website. On Monday evening, May 25, 2020, the 62 year-old Dufresne died of unknown causes but was awaiting results of a possible recurrence of

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

References

2020 deaths 1958 births People from Fullerton, California Journalists from California California State University, Fullerton alumni Los Angeles Times people American columnists American sports journalists {{US-journalist-1950s-stub