Ed Hinton, an ESPN senior writer who specialized in motorsports before retiring in 2014, died Thursday at Brookwood Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. He was 76.
Hinton, who graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in journalism, also wrote for Sports Illustrated during a celebrated 47-year career.
Before joining ESPN in 2008, he signed on with the Tribune Company newspaper chain, writing motorsports for the flagship Chicago Tribune, as well as member newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He was also an editor for a short time in Orlando.
Hinton covered multiple sports and teams throughout his career, but found his sweet spot at the nation's racetracks, where he relived the glory days of his youth. In his
farewell entry at ESPN on Dec. 31, 2014, he noted that "most sports writers have grown up on baseball, football, basketball, maybe hockey, and so they cover what they know -- what they played and watched in youth. I had one more in my background: auto racing. I'd started going to dirt tracks at age 10."
"Ed wasn't just a fine writer, he was a trusted friend. His wife, Snow, was the beacon that drove him to be the best he could be, and his son Tyler was the light of his life," former ESPN.com motorsports editor K. Lee Davis said Saturday. "He was great under pressure, and in racing, there is always immense pressure. Most sports writers don't encounter death all that often in their professional lives, but Ed did, and often. He handled it with grace, tenderness, but always a determination to answer the question of 'why.'
"He wasn't always liked, but he was always respected. He was the best of his generation, and a credit to ESPN."
Associated Press National Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer concurred.
"Ed Hinton would not approve any obituary, nothing would meet his standards. He certainly wouldn't stand for one that didn't include sweating, swearing and smoking. Those are facts, and Ed believed in journalism," Fryer said Saturday. "He was the stereotypical sports writer, but he commanded the subjects he covered. He wasn't looking for friends. He was demanding the facts. And he should be remembered for how tough he was on motorsports, particularly surrounding the death of Dale Earnhardt."
As he walked away from the industry at 66 years old, he looked back fondly, in that last story, about covering Bo Jackson, Bear Bryant, Mickey Mantle and Muhammad Ali, but he was never too far from auto racing, and he called his final outlet, ESPN, "more devoted to the subject than any media organization ever."
"It was a hell of a ride being Ed's teammate at ESPN. I had always admired his writing," ESPN senior writer Ryan McGee said Saturday. "I am still flabbergasted at his fearlessness. His work made a lot of people in the close-quarters world of the motorsports paddock uncomfortable because he was always much more worried about writing what he believed than he was worried about hurting feelings. That takes guts. Hinton was made of guts. Even those who disagreed with him can't argue with that."
Hinton, like many career sportswriters, delved into the literary world as well, penning "Daytona: From the Birth of Speed to the Death of the Man in Black," which was released in November 2002.
https://www.espn.com/racing/story/_/id/43755452/former-espn-motorsports-writer-ed-hinton-dies-76 