By Fred Altvater
If it happened in Central Ohio, Kaye Kessler wrote about it. I began reading Kaye Kessler’s sports coverage in 1969, while attending Ohio State University. He always had the inside scoop on Woody Hayes, Fred Taylor and the Buckeyes. He began covering Jack Nicklaus, when he was just a 10-year-old kid, before he became the Golden Bear.
Kessler covered every Memorial Tournament, since it’s beginning in 1976. In 2016, in a short ceremony held in the media room Nicklaus honored Kaye as the only golf writer to have covered all 40 Memorials. His accomplishments are too many to list, but he was one of the great sports writers of his time and was universally recognized as such.
Born in Toledo in 1923 he knew at an early age he wanted to write about sports and began working for the Columbus Citizen newspaper, while still in high school. Except for his service in the Army’s Intelligence Corps during World War II, Kaye could be found at various sporting events.
He graduated with a journalism degree from OSU and was a sportswriter and columnist from 1946 until the demise of both the Citizen and the Citizen Journal.
He was a very prolific writer, who tirelessly covered Ohio State sports, Jack Nicklaus, the Masters, the U.S. Open, The World Series, The Super Bowl, The Olympics, and many other sports.
He served as president of the Golf Writers Association of America and in 1984 was named Ohio Sportswriter of the Year. He won the Jake Wade award from the College Sports Information Directors.
Perhaps Jack Nicklaus said it best in a tribute he posted to his Facebook account.
“Writing for the Columbus Citizen-Journal, Kaye Kessler was the first sportswriter to cover me when I picked up the game at age 10. He went on to cover me throughout my career, becoming not only a trusted writer but a close friend to Barbara, me and our entire family. Kaye loved his craft, but I believe he loved the people in the game and around him even more. He was always a welcomed face, whether you were an athlete, or a fellow scribe. He informed and entertained us with his writing and story telling. While his writing provided us countless memories to cherish, what is more important is we will always cherish the memory of Kaye Kessler.”
Kaye always sat in the back row inside the Memorial Tournament’s media room and it was there that I first had the opportunity to meet Mr. Kessler. I have had the great privilege of meeting a few of my idols, but none ranked higher than Kaye Kessler. Through membership in the Golf Writers Association of America, I was able to get to know him a little better and will cherish the few short conversations we had.
If there are sports events in heaven, I know Kaye Kessler will be covering them and perhaps he and Woody are having a good laugh right now.
