George Puscas (sports writer)

George Puscas (Romanian: Puşcaş; April 8, 1927 – April 25, 2008) was an American sports writer for the Detroit Free Press. He joined the Free Press as a copyboy in September 1941 at age 14, was a full-time sports writer until 1992, and continued to be associated with the paper as a columnist until 2006.

Puscas was born in Detroit in 1927. His father Nicholas (Nicolae) Puscas was a grocer on Detroit's east side.^[1] After working at the Free Press as a teenager, Puscas joined the military during World War II.

Puscas had his first byline with the Free Press in October 1946.^[2] In his first few years with the paper, he was a student at Wayne University,^[3] and he covered the Wayne Tartars, University of Detroit, Lawrence Institute of Technology, and Detroit high school athletic events.^[4][5][6]

When the Fort Wayne Pistons moved to Detroit in 1957, Puscas was assigned to the team's beat.^[7][8][9] Puscas also began handling the Detroit Lions beat for the Free Press in 1957.^[10][11]

Puscas' "Love Letters", a weekly column in which Puscas responded with humor to letters from readers, began running in the Free Press in June 1959 and continued for nearly 50 years.^[12][13] In his obituary of Puscas, Matt Fiorito wrote that reader letters "were answered cryptically, acerbically, sarcastically and wittily by Puscas, and readers loved it."^[13]

Puscas was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.^[14] In his last column, on May 9, 2006, Puscas wrote: "So this is it. That's all there is. Nothing left. Nothing left to do, nothing left to say. All done. Sixty-five years' worth. Imagine that."^[13] In his later years, Puscas lived in Beverly Hills, Michigan. He died in 2008 of congestive heart failure at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac; he was 81 years old when he died.^[13]

• "Nothing to Bark About: Snobbish Dog Just Sniffs at Scribe", February 29, 1948
• "Duffy Spurns Texas Gold for 'Love of MSU'", December 12, 1957
• "Weep for a Child of Tragedy: Another Sad Chapter Is Written in Bratton Story", January 14, 1962, story about boxer Johnny Bratton, reprinted in Negro Digest, April 1962
• "Travelin' Music for Karras: Jackie Gleason of Lions?", November 28, 1962