ESPN reporter pays touching tribute to late father

For the second time in three years, ESPN’s Jeff Passan was honored as the National Sportswriter of the Year.

Despite being a two-time National Sportswriter of the Year , Passan found himself procrastinating on his acceptance speech, which he delivered on Monday, July 1. The weight of the occasion stemmed from his desire to honor his late father, who had passed away only two months earlier, a mere seven weeks after a brain cancer diagnosis.

Over four decades, Rich Passan became a familiar voice in Cleveland sports. He penned articles for The Plain Dealer and captivated audiences with his insightful commentary on local radio stations like WWWE and WKNR. His “Passin’ the Puck” column cemented his reputation as a hockey authority.

But he was so much more than that to his son, Jeff.

“He’s the reason I got into this business, so if you allow me, I would like to tell you a little bit about him,” began ESPN’s senior MLB insider speech at the NSMA Awards Banquet. “Rich Passan spent 42 years at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. Think about that: 42 years at the same media outlet. His first job there was as a copy boy. He was hired the week after JFK was shot. The energy of the newsroom was like a drug to him. He was where he needed to be, and eventually, he worked his way over into the sports department, where he found a home.

“There’s comfort in that, right? You’re doing something good and noble and meaningful, and you’re doing it with people who make you better. He started covering hockey and he did it well. He wrote a column called ‘Passin’ the Puck.’ He was doing dad jokes before dad jokes were even a thing.

“At his heart, though, he was a reporter. I don’t think I appreciated this until I had been in this business for some time. But when I was younger, he loved telling this story about how some executives with the Cleveland Barons used to call him ‘Poison Pen Passan.’

“All of us know what it’s like to have someone in a position of prominence questioning you. It’s always grandstanding. It’s always a ridiculous affront. It’s just people being insecure. But you’re not here at the ceremony celebrating the best of media and sports media in America if you have not experienced that.

“My dad did more than hockey. He covered World TeamTennis. He was a backup on the Indians and the Cavs, and especially the Browns. He loved football. He would sit there with this yellow legal pad and chart every single play. And he did this because he came up in a time where the internet didn’t exist…He was so pedantic.

“And when Rich Passan believed something, he did not back away from it. And that manifested itself in the most perfect medium for that imaginable: sports talk radio.

“On the weekends, he would go, and he would host a show, and I would go in there with him. And, the callers would call up, and they would tell him how wrong he was. And I was like, ‘Wrong? My dad? No…’

“I learned he was wrong a lot. There’s this thing about growing up that causes you to see your parents differently. And I learned just how strong my mom was because she stayed married to my dad.”

This passion for debate extended beyond the radio waves.

“He was immensely stubborn, and he would erect these impenetrable fortresses around his sports arguments,” added Passan. “I could spot a dozen facts, and he would swat them away…he would flat out dismiss them like bothersome flies. One time, my dad said, ‘Jeff, I don’t like logic.'”

Sounds atypical for a sports radio host, but perhaps this explains why his advice to his son was to “be yourself.”

“One of the things that my dad was the proudest of in this great life was my career,” Passan says. “He didn’t tell me that very often, but it’s because he didn’t need to. He taught me the power of active verbs. He told me that no detail is too small. He said all I needed to do was be myself.

“And later on, he said, ‘You are the writer that I always wanted to be,’ and I cannot imagine a kinder, better thing for a son to hear from his father.”

[ NSMA Awards Banquet ]

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