From The Blade
Jim Taylor, whose clarity of eye and deft prose transported Blade readers to Super Bowls and college bowls, the World Series, heavyweight title bouts, and major golf matches, died Thursday in the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital. He was 85.
He had pneumonia, his wife, Jan, said. He had Alzheimer’s disease and for nearly four years lived in Parkcliffe Alzheimer’s Community.
Before that, Mr. Taylor’s wife took care of him for several years in their South Toledo home.
Mr. Taylor wrote a regular sports column, “Taylored Topics,” for much of his last 20 years at The Blade. He retired on May 31, 1990. He worked at the newspaper from 1963-65 and returned in 1967 after a yearlong stint covering pro football at the Detroit Free Press.
“He was a step above the rest of us,” said Chet Sullwold, a retired colleague who during his own long Blade career was executive sports editor and a sports writer.
Mr. Taylor’s last column on June 1, 1990, began: “I’ve followed the bouncing ball over white-striped meadows and the flat courts, through the swales, and hills, and sand for more than 40 years.
“It’s been a special experience in a world of special people,” he wrote. “Now it’s time to go.”
