The Salt Lake Tribune’s Sports section will never be the same due to the retirement of writer Kurt Kragthorpe. It has been a joy for me and I’m sure many others to read Kragthorpe’s columns and articles about our local teams for 42 years in four daily papers.
Coming from a coaching family, Kragthorpe especially knew football and told us all we needed to know and more about the Utah Utes’ nearly historic season. His knowledge covered all sports and he was able to tell it like it was with no sugar-coating.
Kragthorpe prospered in this market as a coach's kid, a Lutheran from Provo, thriving in a mostly Mormon state. He criticized and praised coaches, players and other celebrities as an objective sports writer who showed no bias toward any team, unlike many of the local "homers" we see today.
Personally, having met him and blogged him many times, he would go out of his way to email me back, no matter his location or event he was covering. We shared stories about his brother and my late father, who both suffered from Parkinson's disease.
I doubt whether Utah will ever see a sports writer, columnist or sports editor that good again and I will continue to miss Kurt’s articles in The Trib every day.
Marty Bernstein, Midvale