Retired sportswriter Tom Casey honoured by OSEG

By Martin Cleary

Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group paid tribute to accomplished newspaper sportswriter Tom Casey on Thursday, when it named the front-row window seats in the press box at Lansdowne Park in his honour.

The best seats in the house for Ottawa media will now be recognized as Tom Casey’s Writers’ Row.

A plaque has been hung on the wall at the end of the long press box table and a banner will soon be placed on the bulkhead over the workspace to pay tribute to Casey. He wrote about the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Ottawa football scene with thoroughness and thoughtfulness for the Ottawa Citizen for most of his 37 years.

The inscription on the plaque reads: “Tom Casey’s insights and words were gospel for CFL fans for 37 years. His stories in the Ottawa Citizen introduced readers to the personalities of the game. As Tom put it, ‘It’s always about the people.’”

Casey retired as a full-time sportswriter with the Citizen in 2003. He was inducted into the Football Reporters of Canada section of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Museum in 2004 and the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in 2014.

Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for 50 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.

When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.

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Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.