Jim Kearney in his earlier reporting days

CBC Radio sports columnist Jim Kearney passed away Friday at 86.

Kearney spent most of his career in print — starting at the Victoria Times in 1940 then moving to the Vancouver Sun in 1943, churning out five sports columns a week.

Fellow columnist Jim Taylor noted that Kearney was a stickler for accuracy. “If Jimmy wrote that the sky was falling I would reach for my umbrella because he wrote it straight and he was accurate — [a] solid, solid reporter,” Taylor said.

After “retiring” from newspapers in the 80s, Kearney brought his thoughts about sports and life in general to CBC Radio, appearing bi-weekly on CBC Radio’s Early Edition. He also wrote a book about sports in British Columbia called Champions.

Kearney covered four summer Olympics and three Commonwealth Games and won numerous awards including the National Newspaper Award for a two-part series on drugs in sport and was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame about ten years ago.

Did you work with Jim?
Have any memories you’d like to share?