Tribute to Jay Osmundson

Perspective: by Jerry Pyle
Aug. 23, 1996

The Fargo-Moorhead sports community lost a dear friend and gifted reporter yeaterday with the passing of Jay Osmundson. That loss is deeply felt at Concordia, an institution with which he had a special relationship.

Jay had the Forum's Cobber beat for many years. As Concordia's sports information director, I had the good fortune to work with Jay on an almost daily basis for the past 9 years.

Jay was a wise sports fan, a man of deep decency, a man of his word, a man of dry humor and a man of compassion.

He was a talented writer who invariably got the story right. He also understood the role of sports at Concordia and honored it. That is no small accomplishment in an era of tabloid reporting.

Jay and I never discussed what seemed to be his personal set of rules for covering Cobber sports. I never wanted to tamper with such an honorable set of rules.

Jay respected our institutional decision to see sports as a facet of our students' education rather than a semi-pro entertainment entity. We don't regard an occasional losing season as a national catastrophe and neither did Jay.

We think our student athletes, all of whom play without athletic scholarships, deserve a deep degree of respect for their dignity, their effort and their privacy. So did Jay.

Jay wrote about what the winning team did to win, not how some 19-year-old choked. He wrote for the readers who were looking to see the excellence in our nation's young people. He didn't write for those who long for soap opera titillation, car wrecks, and power struggles.

A Cobber athlete who lost a starting spot, or gave up on a sport, was respected as a young person working through one of life's difficult moments, without having to face front page embarrassment.

Winning teams got their due. Losing teams were tactfully left to work out their problems in welcomed obscurity. Offensive linemen, pinch hitters and rebounding specialists got the credit they deserve.

Jay knew the games he covered. He knew exactly when Jim Christopherson would go to a full house backfield. He knew how and when Duane Siverson's teams would put on a press and when Bucky Burgau would change pitchers. He even understood soccer. Sort of.

Jay appreciated special excellence. He loved to watch Marylee Legried shred defenses with her point guard passing on the way to the 1988 NCAA basketball championship. And he argued that any minor league baseball owner who didn't want Chris Coste was too dumb to be in the business.

And he was our friend. We will miss him dearly.

Jerry Pyle

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Forum Story

Forum writer Osmundson dies at 42, Houston native covered local sports

Jay Osmundson, a sportswriter and columnist at The Forum since September 1982, died Thursday (8/22/96) at his parents' home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was recovering from heart surgery. He was 42.

His funeral will be at 10 Monday in Cedar Rapids.

The Houston native won numerous awards for his writing from the North Dakota Newspaper Association and Minnesota Associated Press Sports Writers and Broadcasters Association. In 1990 the North Dakota High School Coaches Association presented him with its Award of Merit for his coverage of high school athletics.

His responsibilities at The Forum included covering North Dakota Class A athletics, high school hockey in North Dakota and Minnesota and North Dakota State University club hockey. Most recently he covered the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and Moorhead State University athletics. He also covered Concordia College sports, a beat he held throughout his Forum career.

"This is a tremendous loss," said head Concordia football coach Jim Christopherson. "He understood our problems in Division III athletics. He was a natural fit for us, so that makes it doubly tough for us to lose him. It's a very sad day for us."

Larry Scott, sports information director at Moorhead State, said Osmundson obviously loved his job.

"He felt very comfortable here," Scott said. "He enjoyed dealing with people in our level of athletics.

"He was a special guy," Scott added. "I had a lot of respect for him as a professional. I think he was a very professional writer."

To Christopherson and Scott, Osmundson was more than just a good reporter, however. He also was a friend.

"He was a wonderful guy," Scott said. "He will be missed by us at M.S."

Forum sports editor Kevin Schnepf said, "He loved sports. When he wasn't covering it, he was watching it on his own."

Osmundson played baseball in college and golfed while working at The Forum. He also organized The Forum's softball team for several years.

Covering the RedHawks was a perfect job for Osmundson, a longtime St. Louis Cardinals fan, because baseball was his favorite sport, Schnepf said.

Osmundson's love and knowledge of sports helped make him a good sportswriter, according to Schnepf.

"I think the thing about Jay was that he took each beat seriously," Schnepf said. "Whoever he covered, he treated them well."

Osmundson also loved the Fargo-Moorhead area.

"He would always say, 'Fargo-Moorhead is the best-kept secret in the country,' " Schnepf said. "He had no desire to work anywhere else because that's how much he liked this community."

Osmundson was raised in Cedar Rapids, where he graduated from Jefferson High School. He graduated from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, in 1975 and worked for Decorah Newspapers and Sheldon Newspapers, two biweeklies in Iowa, before joining the New Ulm (Minn.) Daily Journal in 1978. He spent four years at the New Ulm paper before joining The Forum's sports staff.

"I first met Jay 17 or 18 years ago when he was sports editor of the New Ulm Journal," Forum Editor Joe Dill said. "When we had a vacancy in The Forum sports department, I suggested they go after Jay.

"Jay was just a neat guy," Dill said. "He was soft-spoken and laid back and had a keen sense of humor. He was never happier than when he was covering a sports event. We kept close contact with him the last several weeks as he recovered from surgery and expected him back at work in a month. All of us who worked with him are shocked and saddened."

Osmundson's funeral will be at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids, with burial in Story City, Iowa. Cedar Memorial Funeral Home in Cedar Rapids is handling arrangements.