Povich's parents were Jewish migrants from Lithuania. Having grown up in coastal Bar Harbor, Maine, far from a major league team, the first game he ever saw was a game for which he wrote the game story.

Journalism career

Povich joined the Post as a reporter in 1923 during his second year as a Georgetown University law student, and in 1925 was named Editor of Sports. In 1933, he became a sports columnist, a responsibility that continued until his death, with only one interruption. In 1944, Povich took on the assignment of Washington Post war correspondent in the Pacific Theater. Following World War II, he returned to his sports desk. He was the sports editor for the Post for forty-one years.

He celebrated his retirement in 1973, but continued to write more than 500 pieces and cover the World Series for the Post. He would write about both the modern game and memories of years past. At the time of his death, he was one of few working writers who had covered Babe Ruth. In fact, his final column was in the Post the day after his death at age 92.

Povich is the author of The Washington Senators (G.P. Putnam Sons, 1954) and All These Mornings (Prentice-Hall, 1969). A collection of his columns, All Those Mornings...At the Post was published in April, 2005 (PublicAffairs).

Honors

Among his prestigious honors: the National Headliners 1964 Grantland Rice Award for sports writing, the Red Smith Award in 1983, and election to the National Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1984. In 1975, he was recipient of the Baseball Writers Association of America's J. G. Taylor Spink Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame honor for sportswriters. He was President of the BWAA in 1955.

Povich's first name accounted for his listing in Who's Who of American Women in 1958. He recalled in his autobiography that "Shirley" was a common name for boys where he came from, but many who read his column thought Povich was a woman; in jest, Walter Cronkite even proposed marriage to "her."

Shirley Povich Field, located in Bethesda, Maryland, is the home of the Bethesda Big Train (a team in a summer college-player league) and of the Georgetown University baseball team.

Family

He is the father of attorney David Povich and American television personality Maury Povich. He was fond of giving Louisville Slugger baseball bats as birthday presents to his friends' children.