Frank DeFord

Author and commentator Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium. The author of more than a dozen books, The Entitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in early 2007, and Bliss, Remembered (a 1930's romance between a pretty young American and the son of a German diplomat, in which Deford writes as a woman) was released in 2010.

On radio, Deford may be heard as a commentator every Wednesday on NPR's Morning Edition and, on television, he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show RealSports With Bryant Gumbel. In magazines, he is Senior Contributing Writer at Sports Illustrated.

Moreover, two of Deford's books — the novel Everybody's All-American and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis — have been made into movies. Another of his books, Casey On The Loose, is being turned into a Broadway musical. Cathy Schulman, producer of 2005's Best Picture, Crash, is producing Deford's next film, a comedy titled The Sister-in-Law.

As a journalist, Deford has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. Six times Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review.

Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles, a Christopher Award, and journalism Honor Awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University, and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "the world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award. ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, "You Write Better Than You Play." A popular lecturer, Deford has spoken at more than a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world.

For sixteen years, Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children — a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught in American Studies. Hide