George Sweeney, 60, Veteran Sportswriter
Submitted By N.O.V.A. July 2005
Times Picayune 	10-1-1997


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George Sweeney, who covered sports events big and small for 45 years for The
Times-Picayune and predecessor newspapers, died Tuesday of cancer at his home. He
was 60.

Mr. Sweeney began his newspaper career in 1952 while a student at Holy Cross High
School, working part-time for The New Orleans States, and continued in that
position to put himself through Loyola University.

He began covering Tulane University athletics shortly after becoming a full-time
sportswriter in 1956 for the States and later The States-Item.

He chronicled the school's football program from its lowest point, an 0-10-0
season in 1962, to its peaks, such as the Liberty Bowl team of 1970 and the Wave's
14-0 victory over Louisiana State University in 1973.

Mr. Sweeney wrote the definitive book on Tulane football, "The Green Wave," in
1979, putting in perspective the triumphs and trials of the school's storied teams
of decades earlier and the pitfalls and problems of more recent times.

He won many writing awards.

"Like all good writers, George knew his subject well, and it came across in the
narrative," said M.L. Lagarde, a former Tulane sports information director. "He
wasn't one to embellish. The straight facts were his writing tool. George was one
newspaperman who was respected by everybody he covered."

Bill Curl, who was Tulane's sports information director when the Green Wave
received its Liberty Bowl bid after a loss to LSU in 1970, said Mr. Sweeney put
the situation in context.

"Everyone knew we would get the bid if we won," Curl said. "Nobody knew we would
get it with a loss. It was Tulane's first bowl invitation in 30 years. George put
what that meant into beautiful perspective for our fans, and for the readers of
New Orleans. I'm not sure anyone else could. The thing I always thought of was
that George came from a different era of sports writing, when it was the job of
sportswriters to cover games, not athletes or scandals. He did a wonderful job of
it."

Bob Roesler, the retired executive sports editor of The Times-Picayune, said that,
during the merger of The Times-Picayune and The States-Item in 1980, it fell to
him to combine the sports staffs.

"I remember George telling me, 'Just put me anywhere you think you need me.'
That's the way George was. He'd take on any assignment, and there wasn't anything
he couldn't handle," Roesler said.

In recent years, Mr. Sweeney covered bowling and boxing in addition to college
sports.

Survivors include his wife, Patricia Sweeney; a son, Timothy Sweeney; two
daughters, Erin Spansel of Mandeville and Shawn McGuire of Metairie; his mother,
Clementine LoFaso of Chalmette; a sister, Janice Monroe of Little Rock, Ark.; and
six grandchildren.

A funeral will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100
Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will begin at 11 a.m. Burial will be in Lake Lawn
Park Cemetery.