George William “Bill” Tanton, longtime columnist for USA Lacrosse Magazine and The Baltimore Evening Sun, died Sunday, Feb. 6 in Baltimore. He was 90 years old. Tanton served for 21 years at USA Lacrosse before retiring in March 2017.
“Bill was a colorful and prolific institution within our evolving organization ever since he came on board,” said Steve Stenersen, former president and CEO at USA Lacrosse. “We were fortunate to benefit from the addition of such a decorated sportswriter to our staff, but we valued his friendship and story-telling even more.”
Prior to joining USA Lacrosse (previously the Lacrosse Foundation & US Lacrosse), Tanton spent 40 years covering all sports for Baltimore’s daily newspaper, retiring in January 1996, after serving as a sportswriter, editor, and columnist. He subsequently accepted Stenersen’s invitation to join the staff of the Lacrosse Foundation, which shortly thereafter evolved into US Lacrosse, the sport’s national governing body.
In his farewell column at USA Lacrosse, Tanton explained how he developed his love of lacrosse in the 1940s, which fostered a lifelong connection to the sport.
“My father hated lacrosse. He was a baseball guy,” Tanton wrote. “In spite of that, I liked lacrosse from the start, especially the lacrosse being played at St. Paul’s School (in Baltimore). The team there won 72 straight games. It wore classy blue and gold uniforms. In that condensed environment, Howdy Myers, the coach, had the aura of a Rockne or a Lombardi.”
Tanton eventually played lacrosse (as well as football and basketball) at St. Paul’s, and later, college lacrosse at Johns Hopkins. After a few years in the Army and at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he joined the sports staff at The Evening Sun and became a fixture in Baltimore’s media landscape.
● Bill Tanton’s Obituary in The Baltimore Sun
Tanton covered all the big events through the decades – Super Bowls, the World Series, major championships in golf and tennis, Triple Crown horse races, and the Olympics. During the 1970s and 1980s, he also hosted nightly radio sports talk shows on WFBR and WCBM.
Despite several offers during his career to join the larger media world in New York, Tanton always remained in Baltimore, where he raised his family and left his indelible mark on the local sports scene, including lacrosse.
As a recipient of the USILA’s Doyle Smith Media Award, recognizing great contributions to the promotion and coverage of lacrosse, Tanton frequently recounted why the sport held a special place in his heart. He liked to share a story about Hall of Fame coach Dick Edell to help illustrate his point.
“Big Man, the former Army and Maryland lacrosse coach, was stricken with a rare disease that deprived him of use of his arms and legs. He was wheelchair-bound, and in later years, Edell’s home became a gathering spot for some of the sport’s luminaries. On one occasion there were five National Lacrosse Hall of Fame coaches who were there just to visit Dick. That day, as I left, Big Man looked up at me and said quietly, ‘I don’t think the football guys do this.’”
One of Tanton’s greatest gifts was his ability as a storyteller, being able to instantly add a unique perspective to any conversation by recounting personal interactions with sports luminaries and others, often from decades earlier. It was a gift that served him well as a skilled and popular columnist, and a gift that he retained throughout his life.
Not long ago, Tanton shared one of those stories with a friend, recalling his days as a newspaper columnist when he was obliged to offer his views and opinions on all sports.
“One year, I got to Louisville, knowing less about horses than I knew about almost any sport, but I jauntily predicted which horse would win the Derby. What made me feel bad about it was my late Aunt Margaret, a police widow who didn’t have $2 to lose on a bet in the Kentucky Derby, but she did because of me. The horse I picked was picked by a lot of writers, but he finished ‘up the track” as the saying goes. When I got home, poor Aunt Margaret said to me, ‘Oh, Billy…I went out and bet $2 on the horse you predicted, and he lost. What happened?’ Sorry about that, Aunt Margaret.
“His memory of events over the decades – and the people and places that made them memorable – were as crisp as the day they happened,” Stenersen said. “That recall was an incredible gift, as was his ability to tell stories and share sentiments so effectively and succinctly in the written word.”
“There was nothing more entertaining than hearing Bill tell stories about his time covering sports,” said Brian Logue, senior director of communications at USA Lacrosse. “He rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in sports history, but the people that meant the most to him were his family and his friends from the lacrosse world. He truly loved the sport and the people in it. Even after he retired, he would send touching notes or make heartfelt comments on Facebook posts about my family. There was a genuine warmth to him that will be greatly missed.”
A local newspaper article in 2012 attempted to rank the best Baltimore sports writers of all-time. Tanton placed sixth. Although many believed that he belonged higher on the list, the author captured Bill succinctly: “If any local high school or college had any legendary coach or player come through its doors, chances are Tanton wrote about him or her. With his mother lode of contacts and his long tenure, Tanton is as well-versed on the local sporting landscape as anyone that has ever wielded a notepad or tape recorder in Baltimore.”
In a recent conversation, Tanton was reflective and appreciative of his path in life.
“I’m such a lucky guy in so many ways,” he said. “One way was Steve bringing me to lacrosse for 21 years after I retired at The Sun. I was already 65 years old. I met so many nice people.”
Tanton is survived by his wife, Linda Levi Tanton. He had five children, Pamela, Deirdre, Lindsay (deceased), Carter, and Alex; and three grandchildren (Lukas, Holly, Trudy).
The family will receive friends from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home at 6500 York Road in Baltimore.
