Changing Rules   

Old-school sports writer Tom McEwen leaves the Tampa Tribune after a 40-year career.

I DON'T HAVE A favorite memory," says 77-year-old sports writer Tom McEwen, maybe just a little gruffly. There are just so many to pick from.
After nearly 40 years as a columnist, editor and institution, McEwen wrote his farewell column for the Tampa Tribune February 4.
"People associate Tom with the Tampa Tribune," says Managing Editor Donna Reed. "You can't be a sports fan and not know Tom, and you certainly can't live in the Tampa area and not know Tom."
But McEwen's career, while decorated, was also controversial. He sometimes made news. McEwen was often a driving force behind bringing sports teams to Tampa and giving them places to play. He used his access to sources to pull strings behind the scenes, and he used the Tribune's pages to solicit support.
He'll be the first to admit it. For instance, he used his column to advocate a publicly funded spring training facility for the New York Yankees; he unhesitatingly acknowledges that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is one of his closest friends.
"That was just from knowing your sources well," he says. "I knew them well, and I wrote about them. They don't want you to do it anymore. Everything's detached. That was just never my style."
His old-style approach led to an encouraged retirement as sports editor a decade ago, but he continued writing his hugely popular columns. And Reed, who took over the managing editor position in November 1999, stresses that none of that should take away from everything McEwen has accomplished. "It was a different time," she says. "The rules changed."
Of course, McEwen has had a lot more wins than losses. He was named Florida Sportswriter of the Year an incredible 19 times and won many other awards, including the 1993 Red Smith Award from Associated Press Sports Editors, often called the Pulitzer Prize of sportswriting.
McEwen is hardly about to abandon the keyboard: He'll respond to letters and post a few columns a week on a new Web site, www.heytommcewen.com.
And he can't pass up one last, playful dig. "I was having fun," he says. "It wasn't against the ethical code to have fun."