John Feinstein

At a glance

Born 1956-07-28; died 2025-03-13.

Known as: sports commentator, journalist, writer, and non-fiction writer. Citizenship: United States.

Listed as: human.

Who they were

Personal life and death Feinstein was first married to Mary Clare Gibbons; following their divorce, he married Christine Bauch in 2010. [ 1 ] He had two children from his first marriage and one from his second. [ 1 ] Feinstein died from an apparent heart attack at his brother's home in McLean, Virginia , on March 13, 2025, at the age of 69. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] ^ a b Schudel, Matt (March 13, 2025). "John Feinstein, sports commentator and best-selling author, dies at 69" .

John Feinstein was an American sportswriter, author, and sports commentator. A long-time sports reporter at the Washington Post, he also wrote numerous books and was particularly known for A Season on the Brink, published in 1986, which chronicled a season with Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team.

Early life

Educated at: Duke University.

Early life and education Feinstein was born to a Jewish family in New York City [ 1 ] on July 28, 1955. [ 2 ] His father was the General Manager of the Washington National Opera from 1980 to 1995 as well as the first executive director of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. [ 3 ] He attended Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School and Duke University , where he was a sports reporter for the Duke Chronicle and graduated in 1977. [ 2 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]

Path and career

Awards / honours: Edgar Awards.

Career Feinstein joined the Washington Post in 1977 and was a full-time reporter there until 1991. [ 1 ] He was also a columnist for Sporting News and Golf Digest . His last column, about Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo , was published in the Washington Post on the day of his death, March 13, 2025; he had completed it the day before. [ 2 ] [ 1 ] He received the Curt Gowdy Award for print media of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, [ 3 ]

Works Nonfiction The First Coming: Tiger Woods, Master or Martyr (1998) ISBN   0-345-42286-4 A Season on the Brink (1986) ISBN   0-671-68877-4 A Season Inside (1988) ISBN   0-394-56891-5 A followup to A Season on the Brink , on the 1987–88 college basketball season. One of the teams Feinstein most closely followed was eventual national champion Kansas . Forever's Team (1990) ISBN   0-394-56892-3 The Duke team that lost in the NCAA final game in 1978 .

Why this date

John Feinstein appears on our March 13 calendar for 2025 as a death entry.