Former USA TODAY sports columnist Tom Weir dies at 70. He was 'the best of us'

Veteran sportswriter Tom Weir, who was a USA TODAY founding staffer and spent nearly three decades reporting at the national news outlet, died on Wednesday.

He was 70.

Weir covered a multitude of sports stories for USA TODAY, including the Olympics, Super Bowl and World Series. He was at the forefront of USA TODAY’s Olympic coverage, joining the newspaper in 1982 to become its first full-time Olympics reporter. He spearheaded reporting from the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games and 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games.

“As a runner himself, he understood track and field, the quintessential Olympic sport going back to the ancient Greeks," former USA TODAY sports reporter Erik Brady said. "Pindar was the lyric poet who wrote about the original Games − and Tom wrote Pindaric odes to the modern Games for this most modern of American newspapers. Tom worked hard and played hard. He was a pro’s pro. And the best of us.”

Weir was diagnosed with bulbar onset ALS in the fall of 2020, and as the disease progressed, he received immense support from family and friends.

Weir’s office was decorated with press passes and collectable pins, accumulated from a lifetime of covering the world’s biggest sporting events. He met his future wife at the 1991 Pan-American Games in Cuba, which led to the birth of their daughter Maria, whom he called the greatest thing to ever happen to him.

“He was able to travel the world and go to these magnificent sporting events and then relay them, and when he was a columnist, he added insight and his wit to the world of sports,” Carrie Weir, his ex-wife and caregiver, said. “It was his privilege, and he did not lose his love of sports, even when he retired.”

He could rankle readers and fans, such as when he addressed soccer ahead of the 1994 World Cup in the USA. “Hating soccer is more American than apple pie, driving a pickup or spending Saturday afternoons channel surfing,” he wrote.

Weir had a human touch, too, that connected him with readers and the people he covered. When U.S. speedskater Derek Parra won a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, he wouldn’t take a victory lap until his coach joined him.

“Yes, Derek Parra is one of those people,” Weir wrote, “who remembers, who shows his gratitude, who pays back with respect.”

Weir held a variety of positions at USA TODAY, including columnist, features writer and blogger. He often wrote what was then called USA TODAY’s Cover Story, an in-depth look at a topic, person or team. In his role as columnist, he finessed the fine art of making every word count in a 350-word column.

“That was him,” Carrie Weir said. “There was no extra word. He chewed a lot on the end of pens while he thought, and I knew when he pulled that pen out of his mouth, he was done. He got it.”

His writing also expressed a playful way with words. “A guy in Toledo named Jim Joyce wants everyone to know he’s not that Jim Joyce,” Weir wrote after MLB umpire Jim Joyce ruined Armando Galarraga’s perfect game with a bad call on what should’ve been the 27th consecutive out for the Tigers pitcher.

Henry Freeman, USA TODAY’s first sports editor, worked with Weir in Oakland where Weir covered pro baseball.

“The first thing that probably really brought Tom's attention to me was he was a marathoner, and he was going to run in the Boston Marathon,” Freeman said. “And I asked him if he wanted to file a story on that. And I don't know if I was more impressed that he posted a very credible time, or that he filed a story within two hours of having finished or as Tom told me, ‘within two or three beers.’ ”

Freeman said he could send Weir, who had previously worked in news and entertainment sections of newspapers, to any destination and have confidence in his ability to file a quality story.

“The hallmark of that staff, and I hope it still is, is that you could take that staff and put them on any story,” Freeman said. “The part of what I built the staff around was, are you reporters first and you just happened to cover sports? Tom exemplified that.”

Weir’s connections to track and field helped USA TODAY establish itself as a must-read outlet for Olympics coverage, and during the lead-up to the 1998 Nagano Olympics, Weir carried the Olympic torch.

He was more than just a sports guy. He bicycled, gardened, cooked and donated eggs from his chickens to a local food bank outside of Nashville. He played chess, painted and passed on his love of travel and collecting pins to his daughter, Maria. Weir became a father later in life at age 51 and embraced it. He attended Maria's school plays and taught her how to use power tools.

“The shelves and the desk in my room, I designed them and he helped me make them,” Maria said.

Weir is survived his daughter, Maria; sister Kathi Weir; brother-in-law Jim Delaney; and ex-wife and caregiver Carrie Weir. He is predeceased by his father, T.P. Weir; mother, Patricia; and sister, Laura.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USA TODAY former sports reporter, founding staffer Tom Weir dies