Frank Butler, a great all-round sports writer and editor who often appeared on the golf scene, died on the New Year weekend following a fall at home in Chislehurst. He was 89 and leaves three sons and a daughter. He was elected a member of the Association in 1958 and was later made an honorary member.
His obituary from The Times follows:
FRANK BUTLER was one of the best-known names of Fleet Street sports writing and one of the longest-serving sports editors in national newspapers, holding that post with the News of the World for 22 years, until retiring in 1982.
While he took an interest in all sports, boxing was his passion. He was a founder member in 1954 of the Boxing Writers’ Club, later becoming chairman, and in 1984 was named an administrative steward of the British Boxing Board of Control. After retirement in 1997, he was elected honorary steward.
Butler followed the career of Muhammad Ali from the boxer’s early days as Cassius Clay, covering the fight in which he won him the world heavyweight title and shot into the headlines, when he beat Sonny Liston in a controversial bout in 1963. He wrote a biography in 1981 under the simple title Muhammad Ali.
Butler had written his first book, The Fight Game, in 1954 with his father James Butler, the boxing correspondent with the Daily Herald. Two years later, he wrote an instructional book with contributions from English fighters, Success at Boxing. He also produced A History of Boxing in Britain (1972) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Story of Boxing (1986). He edited for many years the News of the World Football Annual, a pocket-sized compendium which still sells strongly.
Butler always had an eye for a promising writer. When Richie Benaud led Australia to Ashes victory in England in 1961, Butler invited him to contribute to the paper, and he has done so since, despite many efforts to lure him away.
Frank Butler was born in 1916 and an early love of boxing developed at his southeast London Roman Catholic school, where the priests would spar with interested youngsters.
His father, then the boxing writer for The Daily Express, introduced the 16-year-old to a humble job at the paper: compiling greyhound racing results. He graduated to football results, and then match reports.
Encouraged by the famous Express Editor, Arthur Christiansen, Butler was appointed sports editor at the Sunday Express at the age of 24 in 1941 — the youngest to hold that position — and doubled as chief sports writer of The Daily Express.
Butler had been posted by the Express early in the Second World War to “Hellfire Corner”, the Dover region shelled and bombed by the Germans, to report from the area and liaise with war correspondents.
The News of the World hired Butler in 1949 as a sports columnist, his new salary termed “the highest transfer fee in Fleet Street”. He became sports editor in 1960, and was appointed OBE in 1981.
Recent Comments