"Junior"
1955-2025
The news of the death of author/sportwriter John Feinstein last week at the age of 69 was certainly a shock. Feinstein was a longtime reporter and was still a contributing sports columnist (he filed his last column of the Post the day before he died) for the Washington Post, but he is perhaps best known as the author of over fifty books and novels.
His most renowned book was 1985's "A Season On the Brink" which describes that season for the Indiana University men's basketball team, and which vividly described the profane and volatile temperament and coaching methods of its head coach, Bobby Knight. It topped the best seller lists for over four months, and opened the door for Feinstein to write many other books on such varied topics as professional golf, pro tennis, the history of Army-Navy football game, minor league baseball, and the basketball program's of the NCAA's Patriot League. He also authored a series of sports themed mystery novels for young adult readers, one of which won an Edgar Award.
For years I would hear Feinstein on an almost weekly basis as a guest on Tony Kornheiser's old radio show, but he stopped appearing once Kornheiser went to an exclusive podcast format. I had assumed that the two had had a falling out of some sort, and I wasn't far from wrong, as I learned in reading about him after his death. It seems that John "Junior" Feinstein was not an easy guy to get along with. He could be abrasive and he always had to be right and to dominate every conversation in which he was involved. In eulogizing Junior on his podcast on Monday with guest Michael Wilbon, both men praised him for being a great writer and reporter, but as a friend, there were times when you just had to step away from the friendship. Sometimes you stepped away for few days or weeks, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes for a few years. When he asked the Post sports editor for a six month leave of absence to write the Knight book, sports editor George Solomon said sure with the thought of "let him bother Knight for six months instead of bothering me."
About that nickname Junior. I always thought that it was just a thing with Kornheiser, but I learned in his obit that the name was bestowed upon him by consensus in the Washington Post's sports department because Feinstein's comportment was similar to that of volatile and abrasive tennis star John McEnroe, Junior.
I have read a number of Feinstein's books, probably five or six of them, and found each of them to be very, very good. Strangely enough, I never read "A Season on the Brink", mainly because of my great dislike of Bobby Knight, so perhaps I should do that soon. My friend Fred says that it is a great book, although it will probably make me detest Knight even more that I already do.
RIP John Feinstein.
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