Joe Vecchione, past NY Times sports editor, dies at age 85

NEW YORK (AP) — Joseph J. Vecchione, who previously was the sports editor of the New York Times for a decade, has died at age 85. His tenure as sports editor of the Times from 1980-90 included columnist Dave Anderson’s Pulitzer Prize and the hiring of William C. Rhoden to become among the earliest Black columnists at a U.S. major metropolitan newspaper. Vecchione joined the Times as a copy boy in 1960 and worked worked as a makeup editor and deputy picture editor before moving to sports. Vecchione became a senior editor in 1990 and retired in 2001, then worked as a consultant, assisting the paper’s move to a new headquarters building in 2007.