Longtime Plain Dealer sports reporter Richard "Dick" Zunt dies at age 78

By Mike Peticca, Plain Dealer
January 3, 2010

Photo Marvin Fong/The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND -- Longtime Plain Dealer sports reporter Richard J. "Dick" Zunt, a beloved figure in the local high school sports community, died Saturday morning at age 78. Zunt was diagnosed with cancer last summer. Also known as "Zip" or "Zippy," Zunt was born in Cleveland and known for his good nature and legion of friends. He ran track and graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1950. He took a year off from school before attending John Carroll University, from where he graduated in 1955. Zunt had a remarkable recall of names, faces and events. He began his journalism career at John Carroll, writing for the school's "Carroll News," and often calling legendary Plain Dealer sports reporter Chuck Heaton with news items. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Zunt was hired full-time by The Plain Dealer in 1957. Some six years later, he left for about a year to try to produce a high school sports magazine. The publication didn't catch on, though not for lack of effort, as Zunt worked out of a makeshift office in his basement. Zunt rejoined The Plain Dealer in 1964 and stayed until his retirement in 2001. He carved a unique niche for his high school beat with a conscientious, caring reporting style, and an ability to relate to coaches, players, fans, administrators and school employees of all types. Zunt's coverage included particular attention to track, cross country, football, basketball, swimming, baseball and softball. After his retirement, he worked as an aide to the Ohio High School Athletic Association at numerous state tournaments. Overall, Zunt had one role or another at state track meets and the prestigious Mansfield Relays for more than a half-century. A member of the St. Ignatius and Greater Cleveland Slow-Pitch Softball Halls of Fame, and of the Cleveland Press Club, Zunt served on the selection committees of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame and the National Football Foundation's Spring Awards Dinner. He is the father of four loving children: Mary "Cal" (Brooke Baker), Monica Klein (Mike), Sarah Morancy (Ruben) and Richard J., Jr. (Ethel); the brother of J. Raymond, Robert (Florence) and Mary Elaine Trapp (Steve); uncle of many; dear friend of Doris Kubinski and her daughters Barb Rosenbaum (Bob) and Janet Seddon (Don). He is also survived by former wife Mary. He was preceded in death by brother Ronald. Calling hours will be Tuesday, 2 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m., at Chambers Funeral Home, 4420 Rocky River Drive in Cleveland. The funeral mass will be Wednesday, 10 a.m. at St. Patrick West Park Catholic Church, 4427 Rocky River Drive in Cleveland. Burial will be at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery, 10175 Rawiga Road in Rittman. Memorial contributions can be made in Zunt's name to St. Ignatius High School, 1911 W. 30th St., Cleveland, 44113. Story at the Plain Dealer   Mehock Relays lose their "Zip" By JON SPENCER, Mansfield News Journal January 7, 2010 Alec Baldwin's character on the hit comedy "30 Rock" -- a suave, perfectly-coiffed NBC executive -- gets a haircut every two days. Explaining why, when caught getting a trim in his office, he replied matter-of-factly, "After all, your hair is your head suit." Makes perfect sense to me. Probably didn't make much sense to Dick Zunt. He was follically-challenged, a nice way of saying he was bald. He managed to keep it a secret from many of us. You see, his head suit was often a Mansfield Mehock Relays cap. Over the past 30-plus years, the Relays in mid-April and the state track and field meet in early-June didn't officially begin in my eyes until I spotted "Zip" in his Mehock cap. They give out a new one, different color scheme, every year. Zunt must have amassed quite a collection in his 52 years attending the Relays. This year's cap, symbolically, will hold more meaning for me than ever because of who won't be wearing it. Zunt, probably the sweetest, nicest man I've ever met, was buried on Wednesday in his hometown Cleveland, claimed by cancer at age 78. At last count, three sports writers at the Cleveland Plain Dealer had written columns eulogizing Zunt. That was the kind of indelible impression he made on people -- not just colleagues, but everyone from custodians to concessionaires -- in his 43 years as a legendary chronicler of high school sports for the PD. The photo on the Cleveland.com Web site that accompanied the stories about Zunt's death also appears with this column. Those familiar with the Mehock Relays will recognize the logo on his cap. (see above) "He was everywhere and he always had on his Relays cap," said Mansfielder Bob Guthrie, a Hall of Fame track official. "At the state meet, he'd always come over and say hi to me while I was working the long jump pit." It was eight years ago that I last wrote about Zip. He was attending his 45th Mehock Relays, but first as a retired sports writer. As I wrote then, the Relays had become such a fixture in his life that even in retirement he couldn't miss it. "You know how birds go south in the winter?" Zunt said in that story. "If my wings are flapping, I'll be down. There were a couple of things I wanted to stay in touch with because they became a part of me, like the state basketball tournament and this. I guess I'm hooked." Now he's gone, just like another Relays institution, long-time Mehock publicity director Bill Rogers. He passed away less than a year ago, just before the 2009 meet. The track infield, where the three of us used to huddle and gripe between races about the plight of Cleveland's professional teams, will seem like a deserted island. "Oh, my goodness, Dick loved the Relays," said former meet director Al Ward, whose association with one of the Midwest's largest regular season meets goes back to 1959, when Zunt was already covering the event, then staged behind the old Mansfield Senior High School. "He'd always be grinning from ear-to-ear when he attended the 'smoker' (a get-together for the meet's officials and coaches). He'd get a lot of conversation from a lot of coaches." Zunt's failure to ever win the most expensive door prize at the smoker would have been enough reason for many of us to stop attending the Relays. "I think the biggest thing I ever won was a picnic cooler," Zunt told me. "I always wondered what I would do if I won a free oil change. Would I drive all the way back down (to Mansfield) to have it done?" Almost definitely. And his car, described this week by PD sports writer Dennis Manoloff as an "office on wheels," would have been crammed with papers and notebooks among the extra sweaters, sweatshirts and rain gear. He learned to never leave home for Mansfield without preparing for the worst when it came to Relays-related weather. "One year it was so cold, I called the weather line to find out the temperature before I left home," Zunt said. "But that number wasn't working so I called the phone company and asked them if they could give me the local weather number in Mansfield. The operator said, 'I'm sorry, sir, we have no weather in Mansfield.' " A giggle followed. Zip always giggled after telling a funny story. "Dick was with us basically his entire professional life," said Mehock referee and former meet director Doug Castle. "That is one of the great things about the meet, renewing acquaintances. There are people it's always a treat to see and he was one of them. He always had stories to tell and he could always tell you what was going on in Cleveland when it came to track and field. We've lost a good friend." On my best days, I could never be as nice or considerate or as passionate about my job as Zunt was about his. And it wasn't just track and field, even though he had a special affinity for the sport since he ran for Cleveland St. Ignatius in the late 1940s. "Every day there was a high school story to cover was a great day for him," wrote PD columnist Terry Pluto. I had to chuckle when Pluto wrote about Zunt having the longest good-byes in the world. When he covered the Relays, he'd follow me back from the track to the News Journal and write his stories from our newsroom. He'd pack up when he was done, we'd exchange goodbyes -- and then 10 minutes later he'd actually be out the door. He had to stop and say hi or bye to everybody else in the newsroom on his way out, even if they were perfect strangers. One of the last times I saw Zip was last spring at the banquet in Columbus where I was inducted into the Ohio High School Prep Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame. It was one of the few times I saw him without his Relays cap. He was dressed in a suit, lending an air of formality to the occasion I certainly didn't deserve. One of the best parts of my enshrinement, as I mentioned from the podium that day, was becoming Zunt's fraternity brother. I couldn't have been more sincere then and it means even more to me now. Given the company I'm keeping and the memory of Zip's choice of head suit, I'll probably always think of it as the capper to my career. Story at the Mansfield News Journal

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