Sportswriters are often remembered as being intricately linked with a particular city or a particular team. Rarely, however, has a sportswriter been so associated with an individual athlete as Al Stump was with the baseball player Ty Cobb. Stump co-authored Cobb's autobiography in 1961, and he capped his career in 1994 by telling the true story of the baseball legend in his biography of Cobb. Like the Hall of Famer with whom he is always paired, Stump had a long career marked by both greatness and controversy. Using his gift for narrative and his insight into the athlete's psyche, Stump helped create myths and then broke them down.

Alvin J. Stump was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on 20 October 1916. As a teenager he covered the 1934 Columbia-Stanford Rose Bowl game for his hometown newspaper. After graduating from Vancouver High School in 1935 he attended the University of Washington, where he became the...