The Best of Milt Dunnell: Over 40 Years of Great Sportswriting

Glynn A. Leyshon is a professor of physical education at the University
of Western Ontario, a former weekly columnist for the London Free Press,
and author of 18 Sporting Stories.

This book, while not a biography, does reflect the man. The legendary
Milt Dunnell has been a sports writer for The Toronto Star since 1949,
and selecting these 77 from his 11,000 columns must have been a
formidable task for editor Robert Brehl.

Probably the best way to approach a problem like selection is to divide
the material by subject matter, and that is exactly what has been done
here. There are sections on hockey, football, horse racing, boxing,
baseball, and even one entitled “Milt at Large”; all, however, are
about the world of sport.

And what a kaleidoscope it is! The 1955 hockey riot in Montreal; the
Canada vs. Russia hockey series; the Argonauts in the CFL; Marilyn
Bell’s epic swim across Lake Ontario; Northern Dancer winning the
Kentucky Derby; the many faces of Ali; and the 1992 Blue Jays World
Series. No reader of the sports pages could have missed these events,
and Dunnell’s unique insider perspective makes them live again. The
range of 44 years provides historical, nostalgic overview. Peppered with
great lines like “Secretariat—thoroughbred of the year in most
gallop polls,” the stuff is eminently readable.

Perhaps what strikes the reader, given the book’s perspective, is the
impact that sport has on culture, especially when treated with the
outstanding skill of a gifted writer and observer.