First Posted: 1/20/2013

They didn’t call him Ace for nothing.

John Ace O’Malley died last week at age 90. He was among the pioneers of this newspaper joining the staff in the paper’s inaugural year, 1947. He was an ace sports fan and writer.

He wrote a sports column called Viewing Sports from the Press Box where he demonstrated a vast knowledge of sports, especially of local athletes, and a keen sense of humor. In a 1959 column he wrote that the Cork Lane baseball team showed great sportsmanship in reporting that they beat Glen Lyon 9-2 to save the losers embarrassment.

Actually, Ace wrote, the score was over 20-0.

His wife said he knew a million jokes. Maybe they called him ace because he was a card.