Pete Axthelm


Pete Axthelm was a sportswriter and columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and its Inside Sports. During the 1980s, his knowledge of sports and journalistic skill aided him in becoming a sports commentator for The NFL on NBC and NFL Primetime and horse racing on ESPN.
Born in New York City and a 1965 graduate of Yale University, Axthelm wrote The Modern Confessional Novel while a student there. he went to work for Newsweek in 1968 and covered the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In 1970, The City Game, Basketball in New York was published. The book explored one season of the New York Knicks along with players who were legends in neighborhoods of New York but who never played professionally. He is perhaps best remembered for writing The Kid in 1978, a biography of then eighteen-year-old Triple Crown winning jockey Steve Cauthen.
While on the pregame telecasts for the NFL in the early 1980s, Axthelm was NBC's answer to CBS' Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder on The NFL Today, providing betting angles to the games.

Death

Axthelm suffered from acute hepatitis and died of liver failure in 1991 at the age of 47. He was waiting for a transplant at Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, and was survived by his wife and daughter.

Awards