By Mat Barrett

Famed Nipawin-born writer dies at 82

Jan 9, 2019 | 2:14 PM

A famed sports columnist, and Nipawin native has passed away.

Jim Taylor was born in Nipawin, and most recently worked in British Columbia at the Vancouver Province. Taylor was widely recognized as one of the best sports writers in the country, and also one of the funniest. He died earlier this week at the age of 82.

Terry Jones is a sports columnist for the Edmonton Journal in Alberta. He knew Taylor from interactions during their careers as sports writers and travelling to much of the same events. Jones said it was great to know one of the best writers in the country.

“He was kind of the Dean of sports writers in Western Canada, at least back then” Jones told northeastNOW. “And I was the kid, and he was very welcoming and I was very appreciative of the relationship that we had.”

Taylor’s passion was the Canadian Football League (CFL), as well as writing for the Vancouver Canucks. He also wrote numerous books.

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He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1989 in the Football Reporters of Canada wing. Jones said Taylor had a different way about him that set him apart.

“When he wanted to carve, he could carve,” Jones said. “But he had that unusual way of making it funny and fun at the same time. There were people that actually took it as a badge of honour that ‘did you see what Jim Taylor wrote about me?’ It was like pride almost, that Taylor chose them as a subject to go after them. It was quite unusual.”

Before Taylor was the sports columnist at the Vancouver Province, he worked for a newspaper in Victoria, B.C. and Jones remembered a funny story from Taylor’s time there.

“He started out in Victoria, B.C.,” Jones said. “And he got a job at the Times Colonist newspaper while he was in high school writing record reviews. On one occasion, a record came out from this guy, and [Taylor] wrote a piece on how he would never make it, not a chance. Guy’s name was Elvis [Presley].”

Along with being inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame, Taylor also was also inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. He also received the Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jack Webster Foundation, and a lifetime achievement award from Sports Media Canada.

mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6