Bryan Burwell charmed on the page and on screen
By Khai Fisher, N.C. A&T
Bryan Burwell was a sports journalist, trailblazer, and a presence who transcended the world sports media. Born in Washington D.C., Burwell earned a track scholarship to Virginia State University, from which he graduated in 1977. He began his career at the Baltimore Sun, where he blended storytelling, authenticity and charisma to entertain and inform readers.
Burwell also wrote for USA Today, Detroit News, New York Daily News, and Newsday and landed as a columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2002. The winner of numerous writing awards, Burwell was the author of “At the Buzzer: Havlicek Steals, Erving Soars, Magic Deals, Michael Scores!” He also was a reporter for HBO’s Inside the NFL and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, a studio analyst for Rams Gameday Live and a regular panelist on ESPN’s Jim Rome Is Burning.
His versatility, as a writer and on-screen talent, heightened his popularity. ESPN’s Adam Schefter once said: “Burwell was good enough on TV to make people forget he was a writer, and a good enough writer to make people forget he was on TV.”
Bryan Burwell died on Dec. 4, 2014, at the age of 59 after a battle with cancer. Khai Fisher is a senior multimedia journalism student from Glen Allen, Va.