Journalist Ron Green dies at 95. He spent six decades as an award-winning sports writer in Charlotte
Posted 9/20/24
Longtime Charlotte Observer columnist Ron Green has died. He was 95. Green's career spanned six decades in North Carolina. He covered 60 consecutive Masters, 25 Super Bowls and countless college and …
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Green began covering sports as a junior in high school in North Carolina and turned that into a career that spanned six decades and took him to some of the biggest events as a columnist for the Charlotte Observer.
Green's wife of 68 years, Beth, died in October 2023.
Green began fulltime with the Charlotte News upon high school graduation. He never attended college. He became sports editor at the Charlotte News until 1984, when he became the sports columnist for the Charlotte Observer until his retirement in 1999.
Green covered more than 80 major golf championships, 25 Super Bowls, four Olympics, 26 Final Fours, the U.S. Open in tennis, heavyweight title bouts and countless college and professional football and basketball games.
He thought North Carolina State's run to the 1983 NCAA title with coach Jim Valvano was the most exciting event he ever covered.
“I still remember the first day I walked into a newspaper office — how it smelled. The ink and the paper. Still remember it. Never got over it," Green once said. "I loved being a newspaperman. I loved the rush, and the crush, of a deadline. And I just never got over feeling good when I saw my byline in the paper.”
Green is a member of the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the United States Basketball Writers Hall of Fame and the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame. He received the PGA of America Lifetime Achievement in Journalism award and the Memorial Golf Journalism Award in 2010.
He was the author of four books — “From Tobacco Road to Amen Corner: On Sports and Life” in 1990; “Shouting at Amen Corner” in 1999; “Slow Dancing with Bobby Jones in 2004; and ”A History of Charlotte Country Club" in 2005.
