[Baltimore Sun] Philip A. ‘Phil’ Jackman, versatile Evening Sun sportswriter, dies
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Philip A. “Phil” Jackman, the exuberant and versatile Evening Sun sportswriter who entertained readers for three decades, died from heart failure Oct. 8 at Brightview Senior Living in Bel Air.
The former Rosedale resident was 87.
“Phil was quite a character — not strange — but so many things, an enigma wrapped in a mystery. He had a tough-guy exterior that hid a very sensitive nature,” said Larry Harris, an Evening Sun colleague.
“He was also one damned competent sportswriter who wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions in the sports world,” Harris said. “He’d go after a story and come back with stuff no one else ever even considered.”
Philip Anthony Jackman, son of Michael Jackman, a plumbing contractor, and Dianne Lemoine Jackman, a homemaker, was born and raised in Whitinsville, Massachusetts.
After graduating in 1954 from Northbridge High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1958 from Providence College in Rhode Island.
Mr. Jackman, who never lost his booming New England accent, began his journalism career covering the Boston Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram.
In 1962, Mr. Jackman married Tina Gryzb, and three years later, moved his family to Hamilton when he joined the sports staff of The Evening Sun, covering the Washington Capitals.
“Among the top three smartest moves I ever made was coming to The Evening Sun,” he wrote in a 1995 farewell column.
“The glut of game stories, features, sidebars, columns, photographs, graphs and charts was awesome,” he wrote. “It was like a baseball player had just taken part in his 2,131st consecutive game or not.”
Mr. Jackman covered all sports, including the Olympics.
“To me, sportswriting is a 50-50 proposition … 50% of the time the reader will agree, 50% of the time he won’t … A .500 batting average is okay with me. Even Ted Williams didn’t do that well,” Mr. Jackman wrote of his craft.
One of his most popular columns was “The TV Repairman,” which featured one-paragraph items replete with his trademark punch-punch humor.
Philip A. “Phil” Jackman enjoyed playing tennis and loved golden Labrador retrievers. (Staff file)
“Lynn Swann [former Steelers wide receiver] is going to be on an episode of Hotel, playing the role of an ex-pro football player turned TV announcer,” Mr. Jackman once wrote. “Here’s hoping it goes more smoothly than his real-life job.”
“Phil was one of the savviest, funniest sportswriters on a very talented Evening Sun staff during the afternoon paper’s last 25 years,” said Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks.
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“He had a casual, irreverent and almost flippant style of beat writing that was a fresh and welcome change from the drab reporting of the times,” said Mike Klingaman, former Evening Sun sportswriter, and now a Baltimore Sun features reporter.
Mr. Jackman was never intimidated by owners, managers or players.
“When a lot of sportswriters knuckled down to the power guys, Phil was one of the leading ones who didn’t,” Mr. Harris said. “Phil was a powerful influence on younger writers. He could make you see the sense of it, and he set a good example.”
During his career, Mr. Jackman received numerous sportswriting awards, family members said.
He enjoyed playing tennis at the old Perring Racquet Club in Parkville, which his wife managed, and loved golden Labrador retrievers.
He was a communicant of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Fullerton, where a Mass of Christian Burial was offered Monday.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Sheila Reuling, of Forest Hill, Susan Jackman, of Pacific Palisades, California, and Michele Anthony, of Warrenton, Virginia; two sisters, Dianne Christine and Laura Zibell; and five grandchildren.
Have a news tip? Contact Frederick N. Rasmussen at frasmussen@baltsun.com and 410-332-6536.
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