Background

William Gildea was born on February 2, 1939, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Education

Gildea graduated from Columbia University with a Master of Science degree in 1961.

Career

Gildea served as a sportswriter and columnist for The Washington Post from 1965 to 2005.

He is the author of books titled When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore: A Father and a Son, a Team and a Time, published in 1994, Where the Game Matters Most: A Last Championship Season in Indiana High School Basketball, which was issued three years later, as well as of The Longest Fight: In the Ring with Joe Gans, Boxing's First African American Champion, published in 2012. His book When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore: A Father and Son, a Team, and a Time recalls the special relationship between the 1950s-era Baltimore Colts and their dedicated, working-class fans. Where the Game Matters Most: A Last Championship Season in Indiana High School Basketball tells of the final season in which all Indiana high schools, no matter the size, competed in the state championship tournament.

Gildea's works have appeared in Best Sports Stories and Best American Sports Writing.

Additionally, Gildea has covered the Olympic Games four times, the World Cup, four times as well, and about fifty major fights.

Works

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• book

  • Where the Game Matters Most

    (A Last Championship Season in Indiana High School Basketb...)

    1997
  • When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore

    (A Father and a Son, a Team and a Time; Describes 1950s Ba...)

    1994
  • The Longest Fight

    (In the Ring with Joe Gans, Boxing's First African America...)

    2012
  • The Fighting Irish

    (Notre Dame Football Through the Years)

    1976