John Feinstein, bestselling author and one of the country's foremost
sports writers, dies at 69
[March 14, 2025]
By HOWARD FENDRICH
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Feinstein, one of the country's foremost sports
writers and the author of numerous bestselling books, including the
groundbreaking “A Season on the Brink” about college basketball coach
Bob Knight, died unexpectedly Thursday. Feinstein was 69.
He died of natural causes at his brother's home in McLean, Virginia,
according to Robert Feinstein, who said he discovered John's body.
John Feinstein was a full-time reporter for The Washington Post from
1977 to 1991, a commentator for outlets such as ESPN — where he made
regular appearances on “The Sports Reporters” — and the Golf Channel,
and a voter for more than 20 years in the AP Top 25 men's college
basketball poll. He remained with the Post as a contributing columnist,
and he also hosted satellite radio programs on SiriusXM.
“He was very passionate about things,” Robert Feinstein said in a
telephone interview. “People either loved him or hated him — and equally
strongly.”
John Feinstein — always a storyteller, whether via the written word or
when chatting with other journalists in an arena's media room or press
box — was working until the time of his death. He was in the Washington
area this week to cover the Atlantic 10 Tournament ahead of March
Madness, and he filed a column for the Post about Michigan State coach
Tom Izzo that appeared online Thursday.
“He was strong with his opinions,” Izzo said Thursday, “but very
interesting to talk to.”
Feinstein was comfortable writing fiction and nonfiction, and took on an
array of sports, including golf and tennis, but he was known most for
his connection to college basketball because of “A Season on the Brink.”
He took a leave of absence from the Post in 1985 to embed with Knight's
Indiana team.
Knight's reputation for having a hot temper was well-established by
then, and Feinstein relayed behind-the-scenes evidence in a way that was
uncommon in sports writing at the time. Feinstein also effectively
portrayed the personal relationships Knight had with his players, which
alternated between warm and abusive.
“I can’t possibly overstate how important Knight was in my life,”
Feinstein wrote in the Post after the coach's death in 2023.
“Not once did Knight back away from the access, even during some
difficult moments for his team," Feinstein wrote. "Although he didn’t
speak to me for eight years after the book’s publication — upset, of all
things, with seeing profanity in the book — he eventually decided to
‘forgive’ me, and we had a distant though cordial relationship for the
rest of his life.”
Praise for Feinstein's work — and the sort of access and skilled
reporting that were its hallmarks — was all over social media on
Thursday, including from others in the business of writing or speaking
about college basketball.
And, of course, the news reverberated around college basketball as its
season approaches its crescendo. Feinstein seemed to know every coach in
the sport — and they all seemed to know him.
Marquette coach Shaka Smart learned about Feinstein’s death from a
reporter at Madison Square Garden after the Golden Eagles beat Xavier in
the Big East Tournament.
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Sports writer and author John Feinstein poses in Washington, Feb.
28, 2006. (AP Photo Caleb Jones, file)
 “Oh, wow,” Smart said. “I’ve known
him for a long time. He’s one of the best sports writers ever. I got
to know him as a writer before I got to know him as a person,
reading some of his stuff when I was in high school. He cared about
the teams and he cared about the players and he cared about the
coaches — which is not as common these days.”
Feinstein wrote more than 40 books, including “A Good Walk Spoiled”
(1995), about professional golf, and “A Civil War” (1996), about the
Army-Navy football game. After that book's publication, he worked
for many years as a radio commentator for Navy football.
“The Ancient Eight,” about Ivy League football, was published last
year. Feinstein also wrote sports novels aimed at younger readers.
Feinstein graduated from Duke University and later taught there. He
began teaching — and was a writer-in-residence — at Longwood
University in Virginia during this school year.
Barry Svrluga, a Washington Post columnist who said he took
Feinstein's sports journalism course as a senior at Duke, recalled
the experience Thursday.
“He got whoever he could to talk to the class — Gary Williams on a
game day when Maryland was in town, Billy Packer, Bud Collins. Bob
Woodward called in,” Svrluga said. “And you could just tell that
part of his reporting prowess — how he got into locker rooms and
front offices and onto the range and in clubhouses at PGA Tour
events — is because he could really develop relationships, and
people just liked to talk to him. Part of that had to be because he
didn't pander. You knew exactly where he stood. And that gained
respect.”
Another Post colleague, Dan Steinberg, Feinstein's editor in recent
years, said: “He would tell me, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going downtown to
meet Steve Kerr for lunch today,’ or ‘Oh, yeah, Jim Larrańaga called
me a few months ago and asked me how we could fix basketball.’ He
loved sports, adored them, watched them constantly even when he
wasn’t writing about them, had an opinion about everything and
everyone. ... He loved Wimbledon, swimming, the Olympics, college
basketball, the Naval Academy, West Point, the Mets, and people who
returned his calls.”
In addition to Robert, John Feinstein is survived by his wife,
Christine, daughters Brigid and Jayne, and son Danny, as well as a
sister, Margaret.
___
AP Sports Writers Mike Fitzpatrick in New York, Larry Lage in Ann
Arbor, Michigan, and Eric Olson in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to
this report.
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