Martene Windsor "Bill" Corum" (July 20, 1895 – December 16, 1958) was a sports columnist for the ''New York Evening Journal'' and the ''

New York Journal-American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...

'', a radio and television sportscaster, and racetrack executive. He served as president of

Churchill Downs Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, famed for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby. It officially opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was p ...

for nine years, and is widely credited for coining the term "Run for the Roses" to describe the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-yea ...

Early life

Bill Corum was born in Speed, Missouri in 1895. He attended high school in

Boonville, Missouri Boonville is a city and the county seat of Cooper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 7,964 at the 2020 census. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the Civil War, on July 17, 1861. Union forces defeated the Missouri S ...

and graduated from

Wentworth Military Academy Wentworth Military Academy and College was a private two-year military college and high school in Lexington, Missouri. Wentworth was one of six total military junior colleges in the United States. The institution was founded in 1880 and closed in ...

Lexington, Missouri Lexington is a city in and the county seat of Lafayette County, Missouri. The population was 4,726 at the 2010 census. Located in western Missouri, Lexington lies approximately east of Kansas City and is part of the Greater Kansas City Metropol ...

in 1913. He then entered the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, graduating in 1917. He enlisted in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

upon the United States entry into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and would later earn a commission. He served as company commander of Company D, 101st Infantry Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division and, at age 23, was the youngest major in the Army during the war. Following the war, he entered the

Columbia University School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sc ...

, while working as a copy editor at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He moved from the copy desk to assistant sports editor after graduating from Columbia.

Career

In 1924, he was assigned to the baseball beat covering the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californi ...

. In July 1925, he left the Times for the ''New York Evening Journal'' to cover the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

. By 1926, Corum became the Journal's lead columnist. His first column appeared July 28, 1926. Over the next 32 years, he filed nearly 10,000 columns with the ''Evening Journal'' and, following the merger of Hearst's morning and afternoon papers, the ''

'', becoming one of the nation's most recognizable sports columnists and radio personalities. On radio, Corum called the

with

Clem McCarthy Clem McCarthy (September 9, 1882 – June 4, 1962)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 173. was an American sportscaster and pu ...

, and the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

with

Red Barber Walter Lanier "Red" Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sports announcer and author. Nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", he was primarily identified with broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four ...

among others. Starting with the first

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He re ...

Billy Conn William David Conn (October 8, 1917 – May 29, 1993) was an Irish American professional boxer and Light Heavyweight Champion famed for his fights with Joe Louis. He had a professional boxing record of 63 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw, with 14 wins ...

heavyweight title fight on June 18, 1941, Corum joined announcer

Don Dunphy Don Dunphy (July 5, 1908 – July 22, 1998) was an American television and radio sports announcer specializing in boxing broadcasts. Dunphy was noted for his fast-paced delivery and enthusiasm for the sport. It is estimated that he did "blow-by ...

as ringside color commentator. Over the next twelve years, Dunphy and Corum called nearly 500 major fights on Gillette's ''

Friday Night Fights The cable television network ESPN has occasionally broadcast boxing events over the majority of its history, as part of several arrangements, including contracts with specific promotions and consortiums such as Golden Boy Promotions, Premier Bo ...

'' from New York's

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylv ...

. Along with

Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To ...

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio. Early years Rice wa ...

Ring Lardner Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (March 6, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre. His contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Wo ...

, Red Smith,

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and ...

, John Drebinger, and

Max Kase Max Kase (July 21, 1897 – March 20, 1974) was an American newspaper writer and editor. He worked for the Hearst newspapers from 1917 to 1966 and was the sports editor of the ''New York Journal-American'' from 1938 to 1966. In 1946, he was one of ...

, Corum was a major player in sports radio and news in the 1930s and 40s. Runyon described Corum as follows: "He is short, chubby and debonair. He looks cheerful and lives cheerfully … he writes about sports events as he sees them, and he always sees them a little more clearly than the rest of us. . . No more popular chap than Bill Corum ever lived in this man's town. He is one of the ablest journalists of these times and one of the grandest guys." In 1947, Corum was named executive vice president of

Suffolk Downs Suffolk Downs is a former Thoroughbred race track in East Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The track opened in 1935 after being built by Joseph A. Tomasello for a cost of $2 million. It was sold in May 2017 to a developer who plans to crea ...

President of Churchill Downs

When

Matt Winn Martin J. "Matt" Winn (June 30, 1861 – October 6, 1949) was a prominent personality in American thoroughbred horse racing history and president of Churchill Downs racetrack, home to the Kentucky Derby race that he made famous. In 2017, he was ...

died after serving as president of

for 47 years in 1949, Corum was named to succeed him. Corum had called the

on radio for most of the previous quarter century and had coined the term "Run for the Roses" in 1925. He oversaw the first televised broadcast of the Derby in 1952 and took on major expansion projects at the racetrack. During that time, he continued to write his daily column and hosted ''The Bill Corum Sports Show'' on television.

Death

Corum died on December 16, 1958, and he is buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery in

References

*Clark, Bill (December 17, 2008). "History forgets Bill Corum, sports/radio personality". ''

Columbia Tribune The ''Columbia Daily Tribune'', commonly referred to as the ''Columbia Tribune'' or the ''Tribune'', is one of two daily newspapers in Columbia, Missouri, the other being the ''Columbia Missourian''. It is the only daily newspaper in Columbia whose ...

''.
"Bill Corum"
Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports.

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

. Retrieved August 5, 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Corum, Bill 1895 births 1958 deaths Wentworth Military Academy and College alumni University of Missouri alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni United States Army personnel of World War I American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American sportswriters American radio sports announcers Boxing commentators American horse racing announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Churchill Downs executives Suffolk Downs executives Kentucky Derby People from Cooper County, Missouri