Chuck Heaton, longtime Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer sportswriter and father of Patricia Heaton
Rob Cibik
by Bob Dolgan
Cleveland Plain Dealer
February 14, 2008
There are no official records on this, but Chuck Heaton probably holds
The Plain Dealer record for most bylines.
The inexhaustible sportswriter covered just about everything in his 50
years at this newspaper, satisfying readers with his intelligent,
conversational style.
At his prolific peak in the 1960s and 1970s, Heaton wrote a sports
column, "Plain Talk," that ran four days a week, and simultaneously
served as the Browns beat writer, turning out a daily story, plus a
notes column, "Extra Points." He was at 24 of the first 25 Super Bowl
games. Somehow, he found time to crank out a weekly column on TV
sports.
Heaton, 90, died this morning, Valentines Day, at 7:20 a.m. after a
short bout with pneumonia.
Before Browns training camp opened each year, he would continue his
column and write all the sidebar stories on the Indians' home games,
besides working the Kentucky Derby, the Indianapolis 500 car race,
golf and tennis.
He covered local colleges when Baldwin-Wallace Olympic track champion
Harrison Dillard and John Carroll football players Don Shula and Carl
Taseff flourished.
He handled the "Glad You Asked" feature, in which he answered readers'
daily questions, for his last nine years before retiring in 1993.
He turned out fast, clean copy, filling two type-written pages in 10
minutes if necessary.
Beloved writer
He was held in high regard among players, owners and readers for his
objectivity, fairness and good sense.
New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who grew up reading Heaton
when he was a boy in Rocky River, had him on the short list of
sportswriters to whom he would always return calls.
Former Browns quarterback Brian Sipe, long after he retired, would
always end conversations with Cleveland sportswriters by saying, "Tell
Chuck Heaton I said hello." When he heard that Heaton was to receive
an honor, Sipe called from his home in California to get the date and
time of the ceremony. He wanted to make sure to attend.
Heaton was inducted into eight halls of fame during his career. In
1980, he won the Pro Football Writers Association award for
distinguished reporting. He received the honor before a breakfast
crowd of 2,300 in Canton. His plaque resides in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame.
More honors
Heaton was also installed in the halls of fame of the Cleveland Press
Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, John Carroll
University, the Greater Cleveland Sports Foundation, the Touchdown
Club, the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame and the now-defunct
Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio.
As renowned as he was locally, he gained more national attention as
the father of actress Patricia Heaton, star of the hit television
comedy, "Everybody Loves Raymond."
The writers of the show would occasionally mention Heaton in their
storylines. He was a visitor to the set, socializing with the actors.
Cable TV stations did three biographies of Patricia in which Heaton
was interviewed.
Like father, like son
His son, Michael Heaton, a longtime Plain Dealer entertainment
columnist, is the third-generation member of the family to work at
this paper. Michael, growing up in his father's shadow, did not come
to the PD until establishing his own identity and style at People
Magazine in New York and the San Francisco Examiner.
Chuck Heaton's father, Charles, who died in 1937, was the
transportation manager for the PD. His sister, Mrs. Edward O'Connor,
was the wife of the paper's advertising manager.
Tragedy struck Heaton's life on Jan. 20, 1971, when his wife,
Patricia, died of a brain aneurysm at age 46. They had been married
almost 22 years and she was the mother of their five children. Her
father was Seth Hurd, a longtime Cleveland judge.
Heaton married Cecilia Evers, an advertising executive, in 1975.
Cecilia, called CeCe, and Heaton stayed together for the rest of his
life.
Heaton was born Oct. 22, 1917, in Yonkers, N.Y., where his father was
employed. He came to Cleveland as an infant and grew up here. He
graduated from Lakewood High School in 1934 and John Carroll in 1938.
He graduated cum laude from Carroll, serving as sports editor of the
Carroll News and the Carillon Yearbook. He was vice president of his
class for three years and was on the tennis team.
After graduation, he became the JCU sports publicist and tennis coach.
He was hired by The Plain Dealer in 1942, starting out on the news
side. His first story was about the last milkman in town to make his
deliveries with a horse-drawn wagon.
Wins Bronze Star
He went into military service for three years in World War II, serving
in Air Force intelligence in North Africa, Italy, Corsica, France and
Germany. He wrote a history of the 324th Fighting Group of the Ninth
Air Force, for which he received a Bronze Star.
After his discharge in 1945, he returned to The Plain Dealer and was
soon put into the sports department. He and the late Harry Jones were
the bright young men of the sports department at the time. Both
covered the 1948 Indians, who won Cleveland's last World Series.
In those days, the baseball reporting position was the top job in
sports, and Heaton hoped to be chosen. But Jones was named the
baseball writer and Heaton was given the Browns beat. As it turned
out, it was a lucky break, for the Browns soon eclipsed the Indians as
the No. 1 team in Town, featuring superstars such as Otto Graham and
Jim Brown.
Nevertheless, Heaton maintained his card in the Baseball Writers
Association of America. When he retired he held the No. 1 card in the
association, meaning he had the longest working tenure of any baseball
writer in the country.
Goes to altar
In June 1949, Heaton married Pat. They met on a Lakewood tennis court.
She was a skilled tennis player, having been a member of the Junior
Wightman Cup team in her late teens. She was also a fine swimmer and
golfer.
Heaton had no trouble adapting to the Browns beat. His outgoing
personality was perfect for dealing with the players. In later years
he reminisced that it was more fun covering football in those early
days because the players were not being paid like plutocrats.
"You could buy them a couple of beers and talk to them," he recalled
in 1990. "Their salaries were about the same as sportswriters."
He became a fixture on the beat. He seldom wrote anything
controversial, although he aggressively pursued news stories.
After the 1961 season, when quarterback Milt Plum complained to Heaton
about his role in the Browns offense, the passer was quickly traded by
the great coach Paul Brown.
Another major scoop came when he learned Browns coach Forrest Gregg
was to be fired in 1977.
Three champions
Heaton covered the Browns when they won the 1954 NFL crown, beating
Detroit, 56-10, and the 1955 title, when they routed Los Angeles,
38-14, under coach Brown. He was the only writer on a major newspaper
to predict a Browns victory over favored Baltimore in the 1964 title
game. The Browns won, 27-0, under Blanton Collier.
He had hoped to be named Plain Dealer sports editor when Gordon
Cobbledick retired in 1964, but the job was given to Hal Lebovitz.
That turned out to be a break also, for he continued to work at the PD
until he finally hung it up at age 76. Had he been sports editor, he
would have had to retire at 65, a company rule for executives at the
time.
Pat had her hands full raising five children, but sometimes she would
go on vacation with Heaton. In 1967, he took her to the NFL owners
meetings in Arizona. The first day they were there, the sitter called
and said Sharon had broken her leg. Pat flew back immediately.
Tragedy strikes
In January 1971, Heaton and Pat were getting ready to go to the Super
Bowl in Miami. Their bags were packed. The morning before they left,
Pat cried out, pains shooting through her head. She underwent two
surgeries but died on Jan. 20, 1971.
The shocked Heaton was left with his five children, Sharon, 20, Alice,
18, Michael, 14, Patricia, 12, and Frances, 10.
In July 1972, on the day of Alice's wedding, Heaton wrote a column
saying coach Nick Skorich would have to get along without his help for
a few days. His daughter was getting married.
Heaton continued to work hard. Aside from his Plain Dealer duties, he
was the area correspondent for Sports Illustrated and wrote in Pro
Football Digest.
"He had five kids to support," recalled Michael. "We went to Catholic
schools on his free-lancing."
Good job
Heaton was a devout Roman Catholic, a daily communicant. He liked to
jog and was not averse to taking a drink. He would have a martini
before dinner each night. Often he would have a drink before writing a
story. Michael recalls coming into the kitchen of their Bay Village
home and seeing him listening on the radio to an Indians game, typing
a story, a beer at his side.
"That looks like a good job," the son thought. Heaton often took the
boy to the Browns training camp in Hiram or brought him to the office
on his day off, when he would answer mail. Michael answered the phones
in the office for a while, giving scores to callers.
As a measure of the esteem in which he was held by players, Browns
running back Leroy Kelly chose Heaton to be his presenter when he was
inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994.
Heaton covered the Browns into his 70s, working on features and
sidebars. Two years after his retirement, owner Art Modell moved the
Browns to Baltimore. Heaton immediately phoned him. Modell said that
was the second call he had received. The other was from President
George Bush.
Heaton asked Modell to leave the Browns name and colors in Cleveland.
Whether the sportswriter's call had anything to do with it or not,
Modell acquiesced. Everybody liked Heaton.
http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/02/longtime_plain_dealer_sports_r.html
David P.
>Longtime Plain Dealer sports reporter Chuck Heaton passes away
>
>http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/02/longtime_plain_dealer_sports_r.html
I remember when chuck came and spoke
at cub pack blue and gold dinner one year.
he told many great browns and indians stories.
As a young sports nut that was a great speaker
to hear speak that day. Of all the great stories
he told the one i remember the most was one
he told of his family. He was talking about giving
up drinking for lent one year and one of his
daughters came home and saw him drinking a
beer and ask dad i thought you gave up drinking
for lent he said but honey i just gave up hard liquor.
Then a week later she came in the house after
school eating a candy bar and he asked her that
she had gived up candy for lent and her reply was
no dad just hard candy!
Posted by doggiedoggie on 02/14/08 at 5:33PM
========
========
I am a sports journalist today, not because of
my journalism education, but because I religiously
followed the writings of men like Chuck Heaton
while growing up, dreaming of getting in the
sports-media industry. It didn't matter that I was
black and poor and from the far east side. It
didn't matter that I didn't know anyone who had
ever graduated from college. What mattered
was that Chuck made the Browns, the Cavs
and the Indians accessible to all of his readers
like myself all over town. I never met him in
person, never had to. But I knew him through
the pages of the newspaper. His impact can't
be overstated.
Posted by newmayornow on 02/14/08 at 7:45PM
=========
=========
I was 16 in August of 1966. Lived in Massillon.
One Saturday some friends and I drove to
Hiram to watch training camp. We saw every-
body that was everybody for the Browns. In
those days we would not have dreamed of
bother anybody for an autograph. While sitting
in the first row of the stands we started talking
with a very nice man. He told us who all was
who. Told us what to watch for at practice.
We introduced ourselves. He introduced
himself. It was, of course, Chuck Heaton. He
didn't have to talk to 4 16 year olds from
Massillon. But he did. I've always remembered.
Thanks again Mr. Heaton.
Posted by Fleamo on 02/14/08 at 8:54PM
=========================
"Endeavor to persevere"
=========================
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Rob Cibik <lcp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> As renowned as he was locally, he gained more national attention as
> the father of actress Patricia Heaton, star of the hit television
> comedy, "Everybody Loves Raymond."
... whose character's husband on the show was a sportswriter. I
wonder whether that had anything to do with her casting.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
bway...@gmail.com
previously in this thread, updated it for Friday's paper.
The new version includes quotes from Patricia Heaton and other family
members and friends.
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-4/1203067896137860.xml&coll=2
Chuck Heaton, longtime Cleveland Browns beat writer for The Plain
Dealer, dies at age 90
A good, long life, a career beyond words
Friday, February 15, 2008
Bob Dolgan
Special to The Plain Dealer
Renowned Plain Dealer sportswriter Chuck Heaton, 90, died Thursday,
surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
"The whole family was there, all crowded into his room," said Heaton's
son, Plain Dealer entertainment writer Michael Heaton. "He said
goodbye to every single one of us, he left no stone unturned, the
perfect exit strategy. He had a good, long life."
Heaton said his father became ill with pneumonia on Thursday at
Harborside Healthcare in Westlake, where he has lived for the past
nine months.
"He had gone through a lot of mini-strokes and had some mobility
problems," Heaton said. "The pneumonia made him lose 10 pounds, weight
he could not afford to lose, and he just could not recover."
His daughter, Patricia Heaton, a star of the long-running television
show "Everybody Loves Raymond," said her father always supported her -
even when he disagreed with her.
"When I was moving to New York after college, my dad was against the
idea," she said. "But when he saw that I was determined to go, he just
said, 'How much money do you need?' and wrote me a check for $800. And
whenever he came to visit me, he never showed his cringe when he had
to step over homeless people to walk up to my dumpy apartment."
Chuck Heaton had gained a reputation for speed, accuracy and fairness
in the 50 years he reported for sports at The Plain Dealer, until his
retirement in 1993.
There are no official records on this, but Heaton probably holds The
Plain Dealer record for most bylines. The inexhaustible sportswriter
covered just about everything in his 50 years at this newspaper,
satisfying readers with his intelligent, conversational style.
Russ Schneider of Seven Hills was hired as a Plain Dealer sportswriter
on Heaton's recommendation in 1955 while still a student at Baldwin-
Wallace College.
"He was my mentor, we worked together for years," he said. "I covered
the Indians and he covered the Browns, then in 1978, after 14 years on
baseball, they put me on the Browns so Chuck could write his column
and Browns sidebars. We worked together until we both retired in 1993.
He was a great guy."
At his prolific peak in the 1960s and 1970s, Heaton wrote a sports
column, "Plain Talk," that ran four days a week, and simultaneously
served as the Browns beat writer, turning out a daily story plus a
notes column, "Extra Points."
He was at 24 of the first 25 Super Bowls. Somehow, he found time to
crank out a weekly column on TV sports.
He wrote stories on the Indians' home games, the Kentucky Derby, the
Indianapolis 500, golf and tennis. He covered local colleges when
Baldwin-Wallace Olympic track champion Harrison Dillard and John
Carroll football players Don Shula and Carl Taseff flourished.
"In all the years that I coached, I always felt we had a close
relationship. I always admired and respected his work," Shula said.
"At that time, you had more of a personal relationship with writers.
The media has gotten so big and the coverage so extensive, you can't
have that kind of relationship of the old days."
Heaton handled the "Glad You Asked" feature, in which he answered
readers' daily questions, for his final nine years before retiring. He
turned out fast, clean copy, filling two type-written pages in 10
minutes if necessary.
Beloved writer
He was highly regarded by players, owners and readers for his
objectivity, fairness and good sense. New York Yankees owner George
Steinbrenner, who grew up reading Heaton when he was a boy in Rocky
River, had him on the short list of sportswriters he would call back.
Former Cleveland Browns running back Leroy Kelly told
clevelandbrowns.com that he loved reading Heaton's articles about the
team since he started with the Browns in 1964.
"He wasn't that type of writer to get down on players when we were
doing bad," he wrote. "Back then, we had some pretty good teams and
great ballplayers. He enjoyed writing about the team, being a part of
the team. He always had that great smile on his face."
He said Heaton worked hard to get him into the Hall of Fame.
"I always wanted him to be my presenter," he wrote. "I would see him
at the Super Bowl games and he would say, 'It's just a matter of time.
Be patient and we'll get those votes.' [That day] is one of the
greatest moments of my life."
Joe Browne, executive vice president of communications for the NFL,
remembers meeting Heaton at one of the Green Bay-Dallas championship
games in the 1960s.
"I was still in college and impressionable," he said. "I said to my
boss at the time, Jim Kensil, 'Mr. Heaton's really a nice man.' Kensil
said, 'Don't kid yourself, they're not all like that.' I also know how
much respect Pete Rozelle had for Chuck during Pete's time as
commissioner."
Former Browns quarterback Brian Sipe, long after he retired, would
always end conversations with Cleveland sportswriters by saying, "Tell
Chuck Heaton I said hello."
When he heard that Heaton was to receive an honor, Sipe called from
his home in California to get the date and time of the ceremony. He
wanted to make sure to attend. Heaton was inducted into eight halls of
fame during his career.
In 1980, Heaton won the Pro Football Writers Association award for
distinguished reporting. He received the honor before a breakfast
crowd of 2,300 in Canton. His plaque resides in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame.
Joe Horrigan, vice president of communications at the Pro Football
Hall of Fame, which awarded Heaton the Dick McCann Memorial Award,
said Heaton was a "tremendous" part of the organization.
"Even before the Hall of Fame opened its doors, Chuck was involved in
a committee here in Canton to make contact with former players and
collect artifacts for the museum," Horrigan said. "He was a charter
member of the board of selectors, serving from 1963 until 1994, and
served on our seniors committee."
Horrigan said Heaton was a confidante.
"He was always someone Don Smith [former Hall of Fame vice president]
would turn to for advice and guidance as they moved the selection
process up to the level it is today," he said.
More honors
Heaton was inducted into the Halls of Fame for the Cleveland Press
Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, John Carroll
University, the Greater Cleveland Sports Foundation, the Touchdown
Club, the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame, and the now-defunct
Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio.
As renowned as he was locally, he gained national attention as the
father of Patricia. The writers of "Everybody Loves Raymond" would
occasionally mention Heaton in their storylines. He was a visitor to
the set, socializing with the actors. Cable TV stations did three
biographies of Patricia in which Chuck Heaton was interviewed.
Like father, like son
His son, Michael, a longtime Plain Dealer columnist, is the third-
generation member of the family to work at the newspaper. Michael,
growing up in his father's shadow, did not come to The PD until
establishing his own identity and style at People Magazine in New York
and the San Francisco Examiner.
Chuck Heaton's father, Charles, who died in 1937, was the
transportation manager for The PD. His sister, Mrs. Edward O'Connor,
was the wife of the paper's advertising manager. Tragedy struck
Heaton's life on Jan. 20, 1971, when his wife, Patricia, died of a
brain aneurysm at age 46. They had been married almost 22 years and
she was the mother of their five children.
Her father was Seth Hurd, a longtime Cleveland judge. Heaton married
Cecilia Evers, an advertising executive, in 1975. Cecilia, called
CeCe, and Heaton stayed together for the rest of his life.
Heaton was born Oct. 22, 1917, in Yonkers, N.Y., where his father was
employed. He came to Cleveland as an infant and grew up here. He
graduated from Lakewood High School in 1934 and John Carroll in 1938.
He graduated cum laude from Carroll, serving as sports editor of the
Carroll News and the Carillon Yearbook.
He was vice president of his class for three years and was on the
tennis team. After graduation, he became the JCU sports publicist and
tennis coach.
He was hired by The Plain Dealer in 1942, starting out on the news
side. His first story was about the last milkman in town to make his
deliveries with a horse-drawn wagon.
Wins Bronze Star
He went into military service for three years during World War II,
serving in Air Force intelligence in North Africa, Italy, Corsica,
France and Germany.
He wrote a history of the 324th Fighting Group of the Ninth Air Force,
for which he received a Bronze Star. After his discharge in 1945, he
returned to The Plain Dealer and was soon put into the sports
department.
He and the late Harry Jones were the bright young men of the sports
department at the time. Both covered the 1948 Indians, who won
Cleveland's last World Series. In those days, the baseball-reporting
position was the top job in sports, and Heaton hoped to be chosen.
But Jones was named the baseball writer and Heaton was given the
Browns beat. As it turned out, it was a lucky break, for the Browns
soon eclipsed the Indians as the No. 1 team in town, featuring
superstars such as Otto Graham and Jim Brown.
Nevertheless, Heaton maintained his card in the Baseball Writers
Association of America. When he retired, he held the No. 1 card in the
That turned out to be a break also, for he continued to work at The PD
until he finally hung it up at age 76.
Had he been sports editor, he would have had to retire at 65, a
company rule for executives at the time.
Pat had her hands full raising five children, but sometimes she would
go on vacation with Heaton.
In 1967, he took her to the NFL owners meetings in Arizona. The first
day they were there, the sitter called and said their daughter Sharon
had broken her leg. Pat flew back immediately.
Tragedy strikes
In January 1971, Heaton and Pat were getting ready to go to the Super
Bowl in Miami. Their bags were packed. The morning before they left,
Pat cried out, pain shooting through her head. She underwent two
surgeries but died on Jan. 20.
The shocked Heaton was left with his five children, Sharon, 20, Alice,
18, Michael, 14, Patricia, 12, and Frances, 10.
In July 1972, on the day of Alice's wedding, Heaton wrote a column
saying coach Nick Skorich would have to get along without his help for
a few days. His daughter was getting married. Heaton continued to work
hard.
Aside from his Plain Dealer duties, he was the area correspondent for
Sports Illustrated and wrote in Pro Football Digest.
"He had five kids to support," recalled Michael Heaton. "We went to
Catholic schools on his free-lancing."
Good job
Heaton was a devout Roman Catholic. He liked to jog and was not averse
to taking a drink. He would have a martini before dinner each night.
Often he would have a drink before writing a story.
Michael recalls coming into the kitchen of their Bay Village home and
seeing his father listening to the radio to an Indians game, typing a
story, a beer at his side.
"That looks like a good job," the son thought.
Heaton often took the boy to the Browns training camp in Hiram or
brought him to the office on his day off, when he would answer mail.
Michael answered the phones in the office for a while, giving scores
to callers.
As a measure of the esteem in which he was held by players, Browns
running back Leroy Kelly chose Heaton to be his presenter when he was
inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994.
Heaton covered the Browns into his 70s, working on features and
sidebars. Two years after his retirement, owner Art Modell moved the
Browns to Baltimore. Heaton immediately phoned him.
Modell said that was the second call he had received. The other was
from President George Bush. Heaton asked Modell to leave the Browns
name and colors in Cleveland. Whether the sportswriter's call had
anything to do with it or not, Modell acquiesced. Everybody liked
Heaton.
Plain Dealer reporters Tony Grossi and Michael Sangiacomo contributed
to this story.
© 2008 The Plain Dealer
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