(1907-1986)
Inducted into Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Greater Hartford, 1985
Sportswriter Louis Black immigrated from Lithuania as a young child, graduated from Hartford Public High School and majored in journalism at New York University, graduating in 1930. While at NYU he got sports correspondents jobs that enabled him to stay in school and to travel to NYU games and other notable sporting events.
For 34 years he was news and sports editor for the Associated Press in New Haven, always calling himself “Lou Black of the AP.” But he actually started submitting sports stories to the Hartford Courant at the age of 12 and when he was 14, the paper hired him as a copyboy while he covered the sandlot baseball leagues and high school sports.
His wire service stories, often dealing with Yale football, swimming and other sports, appeared in newspapers around the country and were widely read, especially since Yale had one of the best football teams in the nation. As Black got to know sports writers across the state, he organized the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance in 1940. He served as president and secretary and was honored by the organization for his contributions. He was also the first president of the Swimming Writers of America and a founder of New Haven’s first Babe Ruth League. He also covered other news stories, including the Hartford Circus Fire. When he retired from the AP in 1968, he wrote a weekly column for the Connecticut Jewish Ledger.
His community involvement in New Haven included serving as Director of Community Relations under Mayor Richard Lee, serving in the Civil Air Patrol, as president of Congregation Mishkan Israel Brotherhood and in many other local organizations.