Legendary sports columnist Garry Brown retires after 59 years

This article is also published on  Sox and Dawgs  as a guest contributor. Today marks an end of an era in Western Massachusetts. Garry Brown, known for his creative and entertaining, " Hitting to all Fields " column is retiring after 59 solid years of sports reporting for The Springfield Republican . He doesn't hold the record for the longest employee at the paper, but does amongst the editorial department. That honor goes to Al Santaniello a mailroom supervisor who started working there when he was 14 and left when he was 78. Brown, 78, kicked off his journalism career at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts and obtained a degree in English in 1955. At AIC, he covered the colleges' sports teams for its school newspaper, The Yellow Jacket . At 18 years old, Brown landed a full-time job as a sportswriter at The Morning Union in 1950, which later became The Daily News , The Union-News , and finally  ... (link)