William Blythe Hanna (January 5, 1866 – November 20, 1930) was an American sportswriter. Hanna was an accomplished sports journalist for more than 30 years. Although familiar with virtually all sport activities, he was an acknowledged expert on

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and billiards, while working for several

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

newspapers. Born in

Plattsmouth, Nebraska Plattsmouth is a city and county seat of Cass County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 6,502 at the 2010 census. History The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed the mouth of the Platte River, just north of what is now Main Street Pla ...

, he was the sixth child of Thomas King Hanna, a dry goods store owner, and Judith Joyce Venable, a housewife. At the age of four, he relocated with his family to

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

. In 1878 Hanna was graduated from Lafayette College in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river tha ...

, and immediately started to work at ''

The Kansas City Star ''The Kansas City Star'' is a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Star'' is most notable for its influence on the career of President Harry S. Truman and as ...

''. He then moved to New York in 1892, and started a long relationship with the city and its citizens. Hanna joined the staff of the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'' in 1892 and moved to the ''

New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hento ...

'' in 1893. He also wrote for '' The Sun'' from 1900 through 1916 before he returned to the ''Herald'' from 1916 to 1924. After that, he worked in the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' when it bought the ''Herald'' in 1924, and remained working there through the rest of his life. His spare writing style was marked by a specific use of language means, as well as his selection of words were those less chosen, terse, precise, kind, and greatly influenced by the lexical environment. In May 1930, Hanna suffered a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

( apoplexy) while reporting an

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

–

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

baseball game in

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

. He was confined to West Point Hospital for three weeks and then, at his request, was transferred to Idylease sanitarium, at his wishes to be near to the home of his brother, Thomas K. Hanna. He died on November 20 in

Newfoundland, New Jersey Newfoundland () is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP), geographically spanning both West Milford Township in Passaic County, and Jefferson Township in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is locate ...

at the age of 64. Shortly after his death in 1930, William B. Hanna became the first recipient of the Slocum Award, which is presented annually by the New York Baseball Writers Association to a person judged to have a long and meritorious service to baseball.Slocum Award on Baseball Almanac
/ref> In 1946 he was named to the

Honor Rolls of Baseball The Honor Rolls of Baseball were established in 1946 by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's Permanent Committee to establish as a second level of induction designed to recognize non-playing contributors.James, p. 46 The committee de ...

of the

National Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanna, William B 1866 births 1930 deaths Baseball writers Lafayette College alumni People from Plattsmouth, Nebraska Journalists from New York City Sportswriters from New York (state)