Bryan Ellis Burwell (August 4, 1955 – December 4, 2014) was an American sportswriter and author. He joined the ''

St. Louis Post Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, serving the Greater St. Louis, St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpass ...

'' in 2002, after leaving HBO's ''

Inside the NFL ''Inside the NFL'' is an American weekly television sports show that focuses on the National Football League (NFL). It originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008. Following Super Bowl XLII, HBO announced that it would be dropping the progra ...

'', where he worked as a sports correspondent. Burwell also worked in radio as a co-host on CBS Sports 920 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, on weekday afternoons and as on-air talent at 101 ESPN Radio, also in St. Louis. Burwell was featured on two

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

programs, ''

Jim Rome is Burning ''Jim Rome Is Burning'' (originally titled ''Rome Is Burning'' and often abbreviated as ''JRIB'') is a sports conversation and opinion show hosted by Jim Rome. Debuting on May 6, 2003, as ''Rome Is Burning'', it was originally a weekly show in pri ...

'' and ''

The Sports Reporters ''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on ESPN2 and 11:30 AM on ESPNews). It featured a roundtable discussion among four spor ...

''. Burwell co-wrote and hosted a documentary on the baseball's

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

titled, ''The Color of Change''. He recounted, in the documentary'','' the trials and tribulations of the baseball league built by racism and its ultimate demise. The documentary featured interviews with

Buck O'Neil John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil Jr. (November 13, 1911 – October 6, 2006) was a first baseman and manager in the Negro American League, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs. After his playing days, he worked as a scout and became the first Afric ...

Jackie Joyner-Kersee Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in tho ...

and Hall of Famer

Ozzie Smith Osborne Earl Smith (born December 26, 1954) is an American former professional baseball player. Nicknamed "the Wizard of Oz", Smith played shortstop for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals in Major League Baseball, winning the National ...

for the ''

''. Burwell died at the age of 59 on December 4, 2014 from melanoma, a type of cancer, leaving behind a wife, Dawnn and daughter, Victoria. Burwell was a native of Washington D.C, but raised in Lanham, Maryland. He attended Duval High School and is a 1977 graduate of

Virginia State University Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of hi ...

where he pledged

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

fraternity.

Awards and recognition

* 2007 Associated Press Sports Editors named Burwell as one of the Top 10 sports columnists * 2013 Eppy Award in recognition of his video-series ''Upon Further Review'' * 2015 Burwell was posthumously elected to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, Burwell was the first African-American to be inducted into the organization's Hall of Fame. *2015 NABJ Legacy Award in recognition for having had a career of extraordinary achievement, which broke barriers and blazed trails *

Bibliography

* ''At the Buzzer! Havlicek Steals, Erving Soars, Magic Deals, Michael Scores!'', Doubleday, 2001 *''Busch Stadium: The First Season'', By Joe Strauss, Rick Hummel, Bryan Burwell, etal., St.Louis Post-Dispatch, 2006 * ''The Best St. Louis Sports Arguments: The 100 Most Controversial, Debatable Questions for Die-Hard Fans'', Sourcebooks, 2007 * ''Madden: A Biography'', Triumph Books, 2011

References

External links

Looking Back-Remembering Sports Columnist Bryan Burwell

Bryan Burwell brought a different perspective to big sports stories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burwell, Bryan 1955 births 2014 deaths Deaths from cancer in Missouri Deaths from melanoma American sportswriters American sports radio personalities National Football League announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters African-American sports journalists American sports journalists St. Louis Post-Dispatch people Place of birth missing Place of death missing Writers from St. Louis 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people