Chauncey Durden, whose sports-writing career for The Times-Dispatch covered 50 years, died yesterday at Retreat Hospital. He was 79. Although he had suffered from emphysema for several years, he continued to write a Sunday column until earlier this year. Mr. Durden was an acknowledged sports expert, but he was equally at home discussing jazz, literature or history. He liked Duke Ellington, Ernest Hemingway and John O'Hara. Even when he was ill and long retired, he summoned the energy to attend a Woody Herman concert here. His colleagues marveled at his ability to recall the details of a Rose Bowl touchdown or a World Series double play decades earlier. At the University of the South (Sewanee), from which he was graduated in three years, he majored in Latin, English and history. That was reflected in his writing. The sentences sometimes were long, but they were grammatically pure. He had no truck with sloppy writing. He never did a column before deadline. Drinking coffee and smoking incessantly, he crossed one leg over the other, turned at an angle to the typewriter and went to work. Desk editors, in Durden's early days, quietly grumbled because no one edited "Sportview" -- it went straight to the composing room. Mr. Durden wanted to be impartial in coverage of athletic events, but he confessed a weakness for one team: baseball's Giants (as long as they stayed in New York). He was corresponding secretary for the "Loyal Order of Giant Fans," an organization so loosely organized as to be almost mythical. Members carried cards. When Willie Mays, the Giants' Hall of Fame outfielder, was on Army duty at Fort Lee, Mr. Durden brought him, with much fanfare, to The Times-Dispatch newsroom. Chauncey Wright Durden Jr. was born Oct. 5, 1907, in Waynesboro, Ga., the son of a Baptist minister. After graduation from Sewanee, he went to work for the Charlotte News. He joined The Times-Dispatch Oct. 1, 1936, and became sports editor in 1939. In 1942, he left for three years with the Army, during which time he studied Japanese. Returning to The Times-Dispatch at war's end, he resumed his previous post and kept at it until he retired in 1977. In his final column, he wrote: "A sports writer knows -- or should know -- he's gettng on when he writes more and more about athletes and sports figures from the past, one-time stars unknown to young readers of sports pages." So, he retired, and as sports editor emeritus wrote about old-timers. In that same column, he also noted: "Among the first things I learned as a sports writer was that it was a grand job for a physically and mentally lazy fellow that never cared for hard work. "Don't misunderstand. A sports writer is, or should be, a thorough workman. It's just that he enjoys his labor to the point that it ceases to be work." That year, Mr. Durden was cited by the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. In 1956, he won first prize in the annual "Best International League Story Contest." It was for a story on the dressing room of the Richmond Virginians, last place occupant, after the final game in 1955. In 1963, he was chosen by his fellow writers as Virginia Sports Writer of the Year. In 1982, some University of Virginia football players from the 1940s and 1950s gathered at the Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville to pay Mr. Durden tribute. The next day, at halftime of the U.Va.-Virginia Military Institute game, he was cited for his contribution to Virginia sport. "To thousands of loyal readers, the ultimate voice in sports commentary belonged to Chauncey Durden," said Alf Goodykoontz, executive editor of The Times-Dispatch and Richmond News Leader. "Day after day, year in and year out, his Sportview added grace and perspective to the world of sports. He earned his well-deserved reputation as one of the country's best sports columnists." Mr. Durden married Lucile Wheeler in 1944. She died in 1970. Two years later, he married Sue Vincent Dickinson, who survives. Other survivors are a son, Chauncey W. Durden III; a daughter, Miss Douglas Durden; and two sisters, Miss Phosa Durden and Miss Rose Durden, both of Charlotte, N.C.
-- Richmond VA Times Dispatch, 11/28/1986