Marvin West was sports editor and managing editor of the Knoxville News-Sentinel and national sports editor and managing editor of Scripps-Howard News Service in Washington. He directed coverage of major sporting events and seven Olympics. He is in the U.S. Basketball Writers’ Hall of Fame, four other halls and is an honorary Vol letterman.
Marvin West has lasting credentials. He was sports editor of the student newspaper at the University of Tennessee in 1954. In what was then considered progress, he became sports editor and then managing editor of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
He went to Washington as national sports editor of Scripps-Howard News Service. He organized and directed coverage of World Series baseball, Final Four basketball, Super Bowls, Masters golf and seven Olympics.
In Washington as in Knoxville, West was promoted to managing editor. He oversaw a staff of 90 and edited a daily news wire. Scripps had 410 newspaper and radio station customers.
West was inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers’ Hall of Fame. He is a member of four other halls and was named a “Distinguished American” by the National Football Foundation. Vol athletes chose him as an honorary letterman.
In semi-retirement, he wrote four books and a few hundred columns for MexConnect. Marvin and Sarah had a winter home in Mexico for more than two decades.
The Wests, married 72 years, live in Union County, on Norris Lake. Sandra Clark interrupted his budding career as a bass fisherman and recruited him for The Shopper. He followed her to KnoxTNToday and continues writing today.
