Mike Downey, a longtime sports reporter who wrote the Chicago Tribune’s “In the Wake of the News” column from 2003 to 2008, died Wednesday in California at age 72.
Family members said Downey suffered a heart attack in Rancho Mirage, California, where he lived with his wife, Gail Martin, a professional singer and daughter of the late entertainer Dean Martin.
Downey was born in Chicago Heights and during his long and distinguished journalism career he contributed to several newspapers, including the Tribune, Chicago Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit Free Press and the Los Angeles Times, where he served as a metro columnist writing about news, politics, sports and entertainment.
Downey began his writing career at age 16 while in high school with South Suburban Star Publications and was a sports reporter for the Daily News until it closed in 1978. Downey has received many awards throughout his career, including being named Sportswriter of the Year 11 times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association of America (seven times in California, and two each in Illinois and Michigan).
Since his retirement, Downey has continued to write in his free-form style on Facebook, sending messages to friends and readers, mostly sports and Hollywood fans. A recent post about the death of actor Dabney Coleman mentioned Coleman’s role in the TV show “Slap Maxwell,” about a sports reporter, among other roles.
“No one has ever played a more vain character, as in the 1991 Columbo, in which Coleman’s murderous lawyer is caught on a Pasadena traffic camera,” Downey writes. “Dabney Coleman played dozens of roles, including himself.”
The same could be said about Downey: He was a bookworm, a writer, and someone who loved to lounge around in the press box or at dinner parties with family and friends. Even his emails were masterpieces.
“He was always in touch with his friends and always had something interesting to write,” former Sun-Times columnist Ron Rapoport said. “When you were with Mike Downey, it was like reading his column. His Facebook posts were fantastic. They were columns, so well thought out that a lot of people said to him, ‘You should really get paid for this.'”
Downey joined the Tribune in 2003, replacing Skip Bayless as one of two columnists for “In the Wake of the News,” a column that dates back to 1913. Among the many stories Downey covered during his six years at the Tribune were the rise and fall of Dusty Baker’s Chicago Cubs in 2003-2004 and the White Sox’s championship season in 2005. He also wrote a regular column about the hot topics of the day, titled “Downey 11,” named after Dean Martin’s “Rat Pack” ensemble film “Ocean’s 11.”
Downey’s love of writing led him to set himself apart from his peers with unconventional sports column writing. After the Sox won the World Series in Houston, he penned a Dr. Seuss-esque rhyme that ended with:
“How are the White Sox going to get it?”
I didn’t know how or when,
I knew I would never forget it.
They won the World Series easily.
They beat the Astros four times in a row.
But was the Red Sox sweep a shocker?
Frankly, the answer is no.”
Downey was a one-of-a-kind writer and a legendary figure in press boxes in multiple cities.
He is survived by his wife, Gail. Funeral arrangements have yet to be made.
