Blackie Sherrod, revered former sports columnist at the Dallas Times Herald and The Dallas Morning News died Thursday. He was 96.
Sherrod, voted Texas Sportswriter of the Year a record 16 times, left the Times Herald in 1985 for the Morning News, building a loyal following through what he called his "Scattershooting" column, which was one of the first uses of the still popular notes-column format employed by sports and political writers far and wide.
In 1999, the Observer's Robert Wilonsky sat down with Sherrod, who told him about what helped him finish his columns, his advice (or lack thereof) for a just-starting Tim Cowlishaw and why he never worried about who won or lost.