Frederick Bushnell "Jack" Ryder - Sportswriting Career

Sportswriting Career

Ryder then landed a job at the Columbus newspaper, the Ohio State Journal, and became a successful sportswriter. In 1905, he was offered a job with The Cincinnati Enquirer. Ryder replaced Charles Webb Murphy as The Cincinnati Enquirer's sportswriter, and was a fixture at that newspaper for more than 30 years. While with the Enquirer, Ryder usually covered the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.

In 1919, Ryder helped give the nickname to the University of Cincinnati sports teams, the Bearcats. Cincinnati's football team had five years earlier fielded a star fullback named Leonard K. "Teddy" Baehr. In a 1914 game against Kentucky, the Cincinnati fans cheered, "They may be Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side." In 1919, Ryder revived the nickname and attributed it to the entire team. The name stuck and was soon adopted by the University.

As The Cincinnati Enquirer sportswriter, Ryder was a voter for the Most Valuable Player award for baseball's National League. He was one of eight American sportswriters, one from each National League city, who voted for the award. In 1924, St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Rogers Hornsby batted .424. Ryder did not give Hornsby a single vote in any of the ten spots on his ballot because he considered Hornsby a selfish player. "I will concede Hornsby is a most valuable player to himself," Ryder said, "but not to his team. On that basis I couldn't give him a solitary vote." Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Dazzy Vance won the award.

Ryder retired from The Cincinnati Enquirer in June 1936. Soon after, he died of a heart attack in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Avondale.