Steve Guback, Award-Winning Sportswriter - October 1, 2018

Steve Guback died peacefully on October 1, 2018 at the age of 91. He was a former award-winning sportswriter with The Washington Evening Star. He also served as Director of Information for the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for eight years. In 2016 Guback marked a 75-year career as a Sportswriter. Steve was inducted into the United States Basketball Writers Hall of Fame at the 1989 NCAA basketball championships in Seattle, WA. He also was elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. During his 20 years with The Washington Star, Steve covered a wide variety of sporting activities, including NCAA basketball championships, more than a dozen Super Bowls, heavyweight championship fights, collegiate football bowl games, tennis, baseball and track. He also covered the Washington Redskins on a daily basis for more than a dozen years and worked with the Redskins for two years on special projects after the Washington Star ceased publication in 1981.

Guback was voted the Virginia/DC Sportswriter of the Year three times, served on the Professional Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee, served as president of the Atlantic Coast Sportswriters Association and was president and later executive director of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. A graduate of Indiana University, Guback was voted the Outstanding Journalism Graduate in 1950 and was one of the first recipients of the Ernie Pyle Scholarship, awarded to outstanding journalism majors in honor of the late Scripps-Howard war correspondent. He also was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma, the international business administration honor society.

During World War II he served two years in the U.S. Navy. Three scholarships in his honor are awarded annually at Indiana University where he also served as a member of the University's public affairs council. Prior to joining the Star, Steve wrote for the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch and the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal. He also contributed to numerous national publications, including Newsweek, The Saturday Evening Post, The Sporting News and TV Guide. With the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Guback handled media inquiries, special promotions, various fitness-related projects and was responsible for the Council's public service messages on radio, television and in print. He accompanied chairman Arnold Schwarzenegger on a 50-state tour promoting the need for improved youth fitness. Guback also served as an Acting Executive Director of the Council for five months under President Bush in 1989 and served on the Board of Directors of the United States Olympic Committee.

Guback was born in Wallington, NJ, and was brought up in Norwalk, CT, where he began writing sports as a high school youngster for the Norwalk Hour. He was inducted into the Norwalk High School Wall of Honor in 2001. He married the former Irene Lapish of Statesville, NC, in 1964. They made their home in Alexandria, VA, and served in leadership capacities at Aldersgate United Methodist Church where they funded the construction of the youth wing into a multi-purpose Guback Center, and also funded the renovation of Founders Hall. Since his wife's death in March, 2009, Guback resided at Greenspring Village, a retirement community in Springfield, VA. He remained active giving sports talks to various groups and video presentations to senior centers and other groups in Northern Virginia on the world-wide travels that he and his wife made over the years. He was host/founder of four TV/forum programs at Greenspring. He also established a scholarship for a student interested in a media-based career who has the opportunity to serve as an Intern at Greenspring.

Attribution: Legacy.com