Sports Columnist

Woody Paige | Biography

Paige has an history of working as a sportswriter for Colorado's three main daily newspapers, all five major Television networks, and 16 radio channels in the city

• By Ojasbi
• Update : October 18, 2021

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Woodrow Wilson Paige is a journalist who has been contributing as a columnist for the Denver Post since 1981.

Who is Woodrow Wilson Paige?

Woodrow Wilson Paige is a prominent figure in the landscape of sports journalism. He is also a TV personality, author, podcast, and radio talk show host. He also holds a couple of acting credits.

He is famous for his appearance on several ESPN daily shows such as Around the Horn (2020), SportsCenter (1999-2005), and Dream Job (2004), among others.

Early Life and Education

Woodrow Wilson Paige Jr. was born on 27 June 1946 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Growing up, he slept in a kitchen cabinet of his parents' three-room "shotgun" house, which also had an outhouse. Their house was located across the street from an adolescent singer-songwriter, Aretha Franklin's home. The Paige family eventually shifted to a government housing complex next to the family of teen Elvis Presley, another famous American singer.

He is an alumnus of the University of Tennessee and received an 'Accomplished Alumni Award' from the University in 2012.

Career

Paige has worked as a journalist for significant national dailies, journals, and online news portals for more than 50 years. He also contributed as a frequent radio talk show host, panel member on myriad ESPN daily shows, cast member of a syndicated podcast. Paige is the author of seven books and three of which are best-sellers. He also possesses a few movie credits. 

Writer/Columnist

Paige began his career at Whitehaven Press as a writer in 1963, shortly after graduating from the University of Tennessee. He then went on to work for reputed news portals such as the Knoxville Journal, The Commercial Appeal, and the Rocky Mountain News. In 1981, Paige got recruited as a sports journalist at the Denver Post. The same year, he wrote in a sports column for The Gazette.

He had chronicled over 40 Super Bowl games, 14 Olympics, and several major collegiate football and basketball tournaments, and professional sports, namely, World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, Masters and Open, Wimbledon, Daytona 500, and World Cup. Paige is reported to have covered almost 10,000 sporting events in his career.

Paige also documented the repercussions of 9/11 in New York City and the Columbine and Aurora Theater gun deaths in Colorado. He had also covered many events of historical importance, such as the civil rights protests in the South in the 1960s, the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, the country's five mainstream political conferences, and a presidential coronation.

TV appearances

Paige is renowned for appearing on ESPN's Around the Horn (2020), SportsCenter (1999-2005), and Dream Job (2004) as a frequent panelist. He also presented the ESPN2 talk show series Cold Pizza (2003 - 2007) which is now renamed as First Take, and its spinoff series First and 10 from 2004 to 2006. Furthermore, he was featured in the TV series documentary 30 for 30 in 2014. 

Additionally, Paige appeared as an ESPN commentator in the film Rocky Balboa in 2006 and the TV series Playmakers in 2003.

Author and Podcast Host 

Paige holds the credit of penning seven sportsbooks. His recent book 'I'm Almost Out of Cha: Woody Paige's Chalkboard Tales,' was published in 2014. The book is a collection of Woody's favorite phrases.

Furthermore, Paige facilitates his podcast show 'Unmutable! The Woody Paige Podcast.' It first aired on 29 April 2020 and encompassed 14 episodes to date.

Achievements

Paige is a Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee member and a Baseball Hall of Fame voter. 

As a columnist and sports journalist, Paige has received over a hundred local, state, and national media honors, some of which include the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's yearly honor and the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha's highest accolade, namely, 'The Order of Achievement.'

He has also received many Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) national honors and has been named the 'Best Sportswriter in Colorado' on multiple occasions. 

Personal Life

Though not much information about his family, Paige is reported to have been married and has a daughter named Shannon Hunt Paige.

Net Worth

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Paige has accumulated an annual revenue of $800,000.

Interesting Facts

• Paige holds a pioneering history of working as a sportswriter for Colorado's three main daily newspapers, all five major Television networks, and 16 radio channels in the city.
• He is involved in over twenty-four philanthropic events every year and is now the Chairman of Fund-A-Cure of the Children's Diabetes Research Foundation.
• Paige's article in 2001 created a debate. Paige claimed that an official at Invesco, who possessed the rights to name the Denver Broncos stadium, said that the stadium's moniker within Invesco was "The Diaphragm," as its structure resembled that of a contraceptive device with the same name. The company's CEO confronted Paige and his writing with legal proceedings, but later they had to withdraw the complaint as the narrative was found to be accurate.