DICKEY, Glenn (Ernest, Jr.) 1936-

PERSONAL: Born February 16, 1936, in Virginia, MN; son of Glenn Ernest and Madlyn Marie (a homemaker; maiden name, Emmert) Dickey; married Nancy Jo McDaniel (an artist and homemaker), February 25, 1967; children: Kevin Scott. Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1958. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Presbyterian.

ADDRESSES: Home—120 Florence Ave., Oakland, CA 94618. Office—San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. Agent—Mitchell J. Hamilburg Agency, 292 South La Cienega Blvd., Ste. 212, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. E-mail—gdickey@sfchronicle.com.

CAREER: Watsonville Register-Pajaronian, Watsonville, CA, sports editor, 1958-63; San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, sports writer, 1963-71, sports columnist, 1971—.

MEMBER: Newspaper Guild, Baseball Writers Association of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: "Best Sports Stories" award, 1963, 1968, 1971, and 1977.

WRITINGS:

The Jock Empire: Its Rise and Deserved Fall, Chilton (Radnor, PA), 1974.

The Great No-Hitters, Chilton (Radnor, PA), 1976.

Champs and Chumps: An Insider's Look at American Sports Heroes, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 1976.

The History of National League Baseball since 1876, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1979, updated edition, 1982.

The History of American League Baseball since 1901, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1980.

America Has a Better Team: The Story of Bill Walsh and San Francisco's World Champion 49ers, Harbor (San Francisco, CA), 1982.

The History of Professional Basketball since 1896, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1982.

The History of the World Series since 1903, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1984.

(With Jim Tunney) Impartial Judgment: The "Dean of NFL Referees" Calls Pro Football As He Sees It, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1988.

San Francisco 49ers: The Super Years, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 1989.

(With Bill Walsh) Building a Champion: On Football and the Making of the 49ers, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Just Win, Baby: Al Davis and His Raiders, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1991.

Sports Great Jerry Rice (juvenile), Enslow Publishers (Hillside, NJ), 1993.

Sports Great Kevin Mitchell (juvenile), Enslow Publishers (Hillside, NJ), 1993.

The San Francisco 49ers: The First Fifty Years, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1995.

The San Francisco Giants: A Forty-Year Anniversary, Woodford Press (San Francisco, CA), 1997.

Glenn Dickey's 49ers: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the NFL's Greatest Dynasty, Prima Publications (Roseville, CA), 2000.

Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties—and the Building of the Third, Triumph Books (Chicago, IL), 2002.

Author, with Dick Berg, of Eavesdropping America, 1980; also author of a television script for a pilot children's sports program. Contributor to magazines, including TV Guide, Argosy, Sport, Women Sports, and Pro Quarterback.

SIDELIGHTS: Veteran sports journalist Glenn Dickey has been covering major league sports in the San Francisco area for over forty years, most of that time for the San Francisco Chronicle. During that time he has written books on several championship teams, as well as several broad examinations of sports history. In his 1980 survey The History of the American League since 1901, Dickey manages to cover eighty years of baseball history in a "well-organized, clear treatment," according to Library Journal contributor G. S. Schwartz. Similarly, Dickey's 1983 survey The History of the World Series since 1903 is "a lively, interpretive history," Morey Berger noted in Library Journal. Dickey has also written histories of baseball's National League and of professional American basketball.

With his long experience in sports, Dickey has written biographies both about and with prominent sports figures. He collaborated with National Football League referee Jim Tunney on the latter's autobiography, Impartial Judgment, as well as with Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers. The latter book, Building a Champion: On Football and the Making of the 49ers, was termed "a notch above the usual sports autobiography" by Library Journal contributor Ron Chepesiuk.

Dickey's works also include several volumes on individual teams, including football's San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, and baseball's San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's. In his 2002 book Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties—and the Building of the Third, Dickey explores the reasons for the success of the team, which won three World Series in the 1970s and played in three World Series in the 1980s, winning in 1989. The author "effectively mixes a straight narrative approach with oral history," Wes Lukowsky noted in Booklist; as a result he "conveys a vivid sense" of each dynasty's workings. Champions is "a solid, telling, and delightful account of the A's," Robert C. Cotrell and Paul Kaplan remarked in Library Journal, "with many insightful portraits."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2002, Wes Lukowsky, review of Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties—and the Building of the Third, p. 1078.

Library Journal, April 15, 1980, G. S. Schwartz, review of The History of the American League since 1901, p. 997; September 15, 1984, Morey Berger, review of The History of the World Series since 1903, p. 1768; October 15, 1990, Ron Chepesiuk, review of Building a Champion: On Football and the Making of the 49ers, p. 91; February 1, 2002, Robert C. Cottrell and Paul Kaplan, review of Champions, p. 103.

New York Times Book Review, November 17, 1991, Mark Goodman, review of Just Win, Baby: Al Davis and His Raiders, p. 22.*