Myron Holtzman covered Ozzie’s famous homer — and chose the losing locker room

By Bill Motchan, Contributing Writer

Published March 12, 2026

Myron Holtzman St. Louis sportswriter legacy — Myron Holtzman, the former sports editor for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat

The count was one ball, two strikes. Ozzie Smith stepped into the batter’s box and jumped on an inside fastball. It was Oct. 14, 1985, and The Wizard hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against the L.A. Dodgers to win the National League Championship Series. Jack Buck, announcing the game on KMOX, famously broadcast the phrase, “Go crazy folks, go crazy!”

Amid the excitement and celebration, Myron Holtzman, then the sports editor for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, headed directly to the visitor’s locker room.

“I didn’t go to the Cardinals locker room—I covered the losing team,” said Holtzman, 83. “I got to Tom Niedenfuer, the losing pitcher, who eventually wound up playing for the Cardinals. But I remember interviewing him that day, and he was wonderful to the press.”

Covering history from a different angle

Holtzman was following his instincts that day. He wanted to capture the emotions the player who delivered the final pitch for his team after a 162-game (plus a five-game playoff) season. It’s an example of the professionalism that marked his journalistic career. He has been inducted into four halls of fame: the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame (2017), the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame (2018), the St. Louis Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2018) and the St. Louis Media Sports Hall of Fame (2025).

Honors across a lifetime in sports journalism

In 1971, Holtzman received the Distinguished Sportswriter Award. That was followed by the Missouri Sportswriter of the Year Award in 1982, the Missouri Golf Writer’s Award in 1985 and the Meritorious Service Award from the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

During the annual dinner held by the St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writer’s Association of America, another award has Holtzman’s name on it. The Myron Holtzman Award is given to a notable St. Louisan for achievement in a sport other than baseball. Holtzman always presents it, as he did at the 2026 event, when it went to Jim Conlon, head coach of the Washington University Bears women’s soccer team.

Reflecting on his many awards recently, Holtzman remained humble and claims he often benefitted from good timing.

“You know the expression, ‘I’d rather be lucky than good?’” he asked. “Well, I hope I was good enough to earn all those honors, but I do know my whole career has been really lucky. I wasn’t even going to go to college. Three weeks before school started a good friend of my father’s got me a loan to go to the University of Missouri. I planned to go to business school, but I found out I couldn’t add two and two. I said, ‘I’m going to do something for the rest of my life that I really enjoy,’ and that was sports.”

From University City to the major leagues

Before college, Holtzman attended Hanley Junior High School and graduated from University City High School. He chuckled when asked if he knew he had a gift as a storyteller when he was a student at U. City.

“If my English teachers knew I went into writing, they would have laughed,” he said. “But I did have some great teachers there.”

While in high school, he played on the baseball team. He was also a fan, partial to the St. Louis Browns. Sports took a back seat to working. After school in the afternoon, Holtzman worked at Stix Baer and Fuller as a “bundle boy,” picking up packages and tossing them on a delivery truck. He also spent time working at Monsanto, carrying mail through the tunnels between buildings.

After graduating from Mizzou with a degree in journalism, Holtzman took a sportswriting job for the Rochester (Minnesota) Post-Bulletin, where he covered prep, college and pro sports. After a year and a half, he got a call from Bob Burnes, then sports editor of the Globe, who offered him a job.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I can go back home,’” he said. “I got to cover high school sports, where the coaches were so nice. I made such good friends, and to this day I remember all the coach’s names and the school nicknames.”

A career built on relationships

A lightning round confirmed Holtzman’s memory of St. Louis area prep sports teams hadn’t faded. He quickly rattled off the Ritenour Huskies, Melville Panthers and Hazelwood Hawks. Coaches remember him, too. Ron Zetcher, retired Ladue Horton Watkins High School football coach, said Holtzman excelled covering high school sports.

“He was a very good writer, and he covered high school sports extensively,” said Zetcher, a member of United Hebrew Congregation. “He covered different schools without showing any bias or favoritism.”

Through the next 23 years, Holtzman also reported on the Cardinals baseball and football teams, the Blues, college football, basketball and golf. He also wrote a weekly column. While at the Globe, Holtzman was working one day when he got a call from United Hebrew, where he is a member.

“They asked, ‘would you like to be on the board?’ so I said yes, I’d love to,” he said. “A couple of minutes later, they called again and said, ‘You are now the chairman of the publicity committee.”

Holtzman and his wife, Eleanor, have three children (Laura, Scott and Brad), and four grandchildren.

When the Globe-Democrat ceased publication, Holtzman worked for The Sporting News and the Associated Press. In 1993, he was hired by Anheuser-Busch to edit and design Cardinals Magazine. Five years later, he joined the brewery’s communications department. During that time, he gained a reputation as someone who was always willing to lend a hand, according to former co-worker Bill Mueller.

“The one thing I remember about Myron is he didn’t turn anyone down in terms of doing a favor for them,” Mueller said. “He was very generous with his time, and he never said no to any favor that we asked him in the department. Most of that dealt with desktop publishing, which he was an expert in.”

After retiring from A-B in 2004, Holtzman co-authored “The Cardinals of Cooperstown,” an anthology of stories about Cardinals Hall of Famers. He continued volunteering and served as chairman of the baseball writer’s dinner for 13 years.

Some of Holtzman’s favorite moments as a sportswriter included covering the final game coached by Bear Bryant, the legendary Alabama coach; the 1983 Rose Bowl; the U.S. Open, Olympic qualifying and the NCAA regional basketball tournament.

“I was the first one to do a story on Bob Costas when he came to St. Louis,” he said. “I did stories on Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagen from the Hawks (the NBA franchise now in Atlanta). It was a great career.”