Jimmy Cannon

Jimmy Cannon (born 1910 - December 5, 1973) was a sports journalist. He started at the New York Daily News when he was 17. He later wrote for the New York Post, New York Journal-American and King Features Syndicate. In 2002, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame for his coverage of the sport. He famously said of Joe Louis that he was "a credit to his race, the human race" and was one of the first sportswriters to see the importance of the black athlete. Ernest Hemingway was an early admirer of his writing.

Jimmy Cannon wrote a column for "Newsday" during the 1950's. Several times he told Sugar Ray Robinson not to return to the ring. He wrote about this several times in his column.

On frequent occasions, when Cannon had no particular sports news to report, he would still manage to fill his daily column space by starting off with the phrase "Nobody asked me, but..." and then filling the rest of the column with his random opinions on any and every subject outside of the sports world. This gambit has been eagerly seized upon by newspaper columnists ever since, not only on the sports page but in every other section. Columnists who "borrow" this device will typically lead off with some lip-service tribute to its originator, such as "In the words of the immortal Jimmy Cannon: Nobody asked me, but..." and then they're off.

Whenever American journalists are informally or formally polled to choose the greatest columnists of all time, Jimmy Cannon is almost invariably voted the best sportswriter, and usually ranks near the top of any list of newspapermen in all categories.

"A sports expert is the guy who writes the best alibis for being wrong"- Jimmy Cannon