Fred Russell Papers

The 1972 Summer Olympics was just one of my Olympic Games Fred Russell attended. It was here though that Russell was witness to the massacre of the Israeli athletes. In a split second Russell turned to “hard journalism,” reporting the events as they…

A compilation of Fred Russell’s coverage of a libel suit filed by Georgia’s head coach Wally Butts, 1905-1973, against The Saturday Evening Post. He sued for libel an Atlanta jury awarded Georgia Athletic Director Wally Butts $3.06 million in damages…

Fred Russell stopped practicing law in 1929 to work for The Nashville Banner. He first was assigned to the police beat and then in September 1929 was assigned to cover Vanderbilt Football, succeeding Ralph McGill, who had moved to The Atlanta…

Writer and humorist Ogden Nash, 1902-1971, writes to Russell of how he enjoyed Bury Me in an Old Press Box. Russell authored seven books, three of them on sports humor. This 1957 semi-autobiographical work became a bestseller. The Vanderbilt…