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John Feinstein, sports columnist and prolific sports book author, dies at 69

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Sorry to tell you that John Feinstein has died. He covered sports for The Washington Post and appeared regularly on this program. I just did a search and found that John and I talked on the air more than 100 times.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

INSKEEP: We're going to talk about those teams and more with commentator John Feinstein, who joins us once again. John, good morning.

JOHN FEINSTEIN: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: I just want to mention, for people who...

This man had a knack for book titles. Once, he spent a whole season following the explosive Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight, and that became his book "A Season On The Brink." The title of his book on golf quoted Mark Twain - "A Good Walk Spoiled." His book on the Army-Navy football game was "A Civil War." For all of his writing, all of his work, he never lost his enthusiasm - as when John talked about the NCAA basketball tournament.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

FEINSTEIN: One game will end, and you look up on the scoreboard, and another game is tied with two minutes to go. And you go watch the ending of that, and you can have one spectacular finish after another.

INSKEEP: And he would follow them all. It would have been right for John to see a few more tournaments.

John Feinstein has died at age 69.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.