EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob Levinson, a Scholastic Sports Association grad from the 1950s and now a mystery novelist, contacted CSPA board member Steve Harvey with a request to write something about founder Ira Walsh. This is his submission.
By BOB LEVINSON
In the beginning was the Scholastic Sports Association.
Or, more accurately, there was Ira Paul Walsh, circulation promotion director at the Los Angeles Examiner.
The SSA was Ira's brainchild, one of dozens he'd have during his years with the paper — the one that endures and matters most for so many old (and getting older) graduates of the high school sportswriting program he originally conceived as a circulation booster.
At the time Ira proposed the program to the Hearst organization higher-ups, prep sports coverage was barely an afterthought at the Examiner or its sister publication, the Herald-Express, while the Los Angeles Times got by with a column or two of weekly results by Johnny de la Vega.
Box scores and bylines. Hmmm. Names make news, and kids' names appearing regularly sounded like a winning combination to create a strong, loyal subscriber network of proud parents.
Ira's idea was green-lighted. SSA newsroom space leased on the third floor of the Case Hotel, across from the Examiner at Eleventh and Broadway, and Ralph Alexander was enlisted to oversee editorial aspects of the program while Ira supervised its management and potential for growth.
The program was promoted to high school journalism classes. Seemingly overnight, there were reporters at every public and private school phoning in Los Angeles City Schools and California Interscholastic Federation game results to other SSA members manning the phones and cranking out the main stories and shorter, one- and two-paragraph reports that filled on average a page and a half of Examiner space.
Among those who backstopped Ralph on editorial supervision and copy editing were the likes of Chuck Novak, who would go on to head corporate communications for United Airlines; Dick Kline, who left journalism for a career in political public relations, and Chris Schaller, who became a columnist and sports editor at the Las Vegas Sun.
Big, boisterous, cigar-smoking Ira, meanwhile, had visions for the SSA that extended beyond prep sports coverage. He saw the SSA as a vehicle for inspiring and underwriting career and lifetime opportunities for student members who were from troubled backgrounds or neighborhoods.
He began quietly, bringing the Examiner into the annual high school writing competition of the National Association of Journalism Directors at North Hollywood High School, where he presented trophies to the winners and solicited their participation in the SSA.
He involved key SSA editors in the All-League, All-City and All-CIF selection process at Bill Schroeder's Helms Athletic Foundation.
He initiated a scholarship awards program at Pepperdine University for SSA graduates.
He arranged for ongoing attendance at major sports events, even expense-paid trips to the Olympic Games, for deserving SSA editorial staff members, often with coverage that carried over into the regular pages of the Examiner.
On a more personal level, Ira wasn't beyond digging into his own pocket to pass along a few or more bucks for some kid who had the need, no matter the reason, or making phone calls that might provide a happy ending to a sour situation, the only kind of return he ever hoped for on his investments in members of his SSA family.
He never asked for or expected a thank you, but here it is anyway:
Thank you, Ira.
