Bob Ryan Biography
Bob Ryan (Robert P. Ryan) is an American sportswriter formerly for The Boston Globe. Ryan has been described as “the quintessential American sportswriter” and a basketball guru and is well known for his coverage of the sport including his famous stories covering the Boston Celtics in the 1970s.
After graduating from Boston College, he started as a sports intern for the Globe on the same day as Peter Gammons, and later worked with other Globe sports writing legends Leigh Montville and Will McDonough.
In early 2012, Ryan announced his retirement from sports writing after 44 years once the 2012 Olympic Games concluded. His final column in The Boston Globe was published August 12, 2012.
Bob Ryan Education
Ryan attended high school at the Lawrenceville School from 1960 to 1964. He then graduated from Boston College as a history major in 1968.
Bob Ryan Celtics Beat Writer
In the fall of 1969 a vacancy on the Globe’s Celtics beat was created, and Bob Ryan got the job. While covering the Celtics, he developed a close relationship with the Celtics organization. Ryan would even go out to dinner with the team.
He sat at the press table 8 seats from the Celtics’ bench, where colleagues referred to him as the “Commissioner”, not unlike Peter Gammons’s nickname. Boston Sports Media critic Bruce Allen has said, “His passion is not faked.”
One night Hue Hollins, the referee, went to the press table to explain a call to Bob during a time-out even though he was not obligated to. Another time he wrote a column about the Washington Bullets’ Rick Mahorn and how he played dirty under the hoop.
When Mahorn was called for a foul Gene Shue, the Bullets’ coach, turned around and said, “That’s your fault, Bob Ryan, your fault!” Dennis Johnson was often annoyed with Ryan and would go up to the press table and say, “Hey, Bob, keep it down. We got a game going on here” when Ryan sideline coached.
From Ryan’s first column on Larry Bird headlined “Celtics draft Bird for oh what a future” to his last “Larry! Larry! Larry!” Ryan was always a fan of his and eventually co-authored a book with him.
In Tom (Tommy) Heinsohn’s book Give ’em the Hook, Heinsohn is negative towards Ryan. Bob Ryan, who began writing for the Globe in Heinsohn’s rookie season as a coach, would make friends with the players and vent their feelings towards Heinsohn, their fans, and their teammates, claims Heinsohn.
Heinsohn didn’t like how he didn’t feel in control of his team. Heinsohn believes that Ryan started to “think of himself as another member of the family” and that he even started coaching the team through his beat stories.
Heinsohn goes on to talk about Ryan’s bloated ego and the fact that he was then thinking of himself as a basketball guru. Heinsohn also says while noting disapproval of Ryan that at the time anyone who lived in Boston and even remotely followed basketball read Bob Ryan.
In recent years Ryan has been less critical of Celtics coaches, including Doc Rivers, of whom he said, “I’m a Doc guy.”
Bob Ryan General Sports Columnist
In 1982, Bob Ryan would hand the torch of the Globe Celtics beat to then-not well known Dan Shaughnessy, and later Jackie MacMullan. Ryan did this in order to go to WCVB for a couple of years. He ended up hating it and moved back to the Celtics beat in 1984 for two more seasons before getting promoted to general sports columnist in 1989.
Ryan would cover 20 NBA finals, 20 Final Fours, nine World Series, five Super Bowls, the last seven Olympics and many other events. In recent times he has become less basketball-oriented and more general sports-oriented. Ryan continues to write for Basketball Times. Ryan votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bob Ryan Age
Ryan was born on February 21, 1946 in Trenton, New Jersey, United States. He is 78 years old as of 2024.
Bob Ryan Height
Ryan stands at a height of 6 feet 1 inch tall.
Bob Ryan Family
Ryan is private about his personal life he has not revealed any information about his parents nor if he has any siblings.
Bob Ryan Wife
Ryan is married to Elaine since 1969 and together they have a daughter Jessica, and a son Keith who died in 2008. They are grandparents of triplets. Today, he resides in Hingham, Massachusetts.
The dedication page in Forty Eight Minutes, one of Ryan’s books, says, “To Elaine Ryan: In the next life, maybe you’ll get a nine-to-five man who makes seven figures.” Ryan has also done humanitarian fundraisers for years to help inner-city teenagers with their educations.
Bob Ryan Son | Bob Ryan Son Death
On January 28, 2008 Ryan’s 37-year-old son, Keith, was found dead in his home in Islamabad, Pakistan. Initial reports indicated that Keith’s death was an apparent suicide; however, reports in the Pakistani newspapers Dawn and The News International indicated that his death may be investigated as a murder. A State Department spokesperson would only say the death was under investigation.
His father, Bob Ryan, released the following statement: “Everyone is devastated. I am well aware of these reports and we are very concerned about that. (But) we have no reason at this time to doubt the official version”.
He had been working as an attache for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in Pakistan since December 2006. He was a 1988 graduate of Hingham High School, Trinity College, the London School of Economics and Boston College Law School.
Keith had previously worked for the U.S. Border Patrol, LAPD and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he was assigned to the violent gang task force.
Keith Ryan was married to Kate and had three children, Conor, John, and Amelia, who live in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Bob Ryan Salary
Ryan earns an estimated salary of $50,000 to $100,000 annually.
Bob Ryan Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of about $1 million to $5 million.
Bob Ryan Retriment
Bob Ryan Books
- Wait Till I Make the Show: Baseball in the Minor Leagues (1974)
- Celtics pride: The rebuilding of Boston’s world championship basketball team (1975)
- The Pro Game: The World of Professional Basketball (1975)
- Hondo: Celtic Man in Motion (1977) coauthored with John Havlicek
- Forty Eight Minutes (1987) with Terry Pluto
- Cousy on the Celtic Mystique (1988) coauthored with Bob Cousy
- Drive: The Story of My Life (1989) coauthored with Larry Bird
- Boston Celtics: The History, Legends, and Images of America’s Most Celebrated Team (1990)
- The Four Seasons (1997)
- The Road to the Super Bowl (1997)
- A Day of Light and Shadows (2000) Only introduction
- When Boston Won the World Series: A Chronicle of Boston’s Remarkable Victory in the First Modern World Series of 1903 (2004) released before Red Sox victory
- The Best of Sport: Classic Writing from the Golden Era of Sports (2005)
- “Scribe: My Life in Sports” (2014) a memoir of Bob’s life leading up to, throughout, and post retirement from covering sports.
Bob Ryan Awards
- National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association National Sportswriter of the Year four times (2000, 2007, 2008, 2009).
- College Basketball Writers and New England Basketball Halls of Fame.
- 1996 Curt Gowdy Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame
- 2000 Associated Press “National Sportswriter of the Year”
- 2006 Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism
- 2015 PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing