LARRY KEITH BIOGRAPHY
Larry Keith was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1947. He grew up in Charlotte, attended South Mecklenburg High School and UNC-Charlotte for two years, where he worked with editor-in-chief Ellison Clary, before transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was sports editor of The Daily Tar Heel and sports director of WCHL. He interned at The Charlotte News for six years and after graduating from Carolina worked for less than a year as a news man at WAYS in Charlotte, winning a national award, before joining Sports Illustrated. Larry lived 49 years in New York, 34 as an SI writer and editor. He returned to Charlotte with his wife Carolyn, a former SI photo editor, in 2019.
As an SI writer, he primarily covered baseball and college basketball and then oversaw those sports as a senior editor. He wrote 19 cover stories on such personalities as Magic Johnson, Pete Rose, Tom Seaver, Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin and Tommy Lasorda. As the magazine’s assistant managing editor he created the concept for Sports Illustrated For Kids and directed two Time Incorporated magazine development projects. He also taught sports journalism at Columbia University, appeared regularly on the USA television network’s Sports Probe and served as a judge for the sports Emmy Awards.
Keith has written two books, A Coach’s World with Notre Dame’s Digger Phelps, published in 1974, and Touch ’Em All: My Life and Career at Sports Illustrated, published this summer.
He is a member of the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame and served on the boards of the alumni association and the journalism school.
Finally, Keith is an ordained Presbyterian elder, serving in Garden City, NY and at Sharon Presbyterian in Charlotte. He was also moderator of the Long Island Presbytery. He and Carolyn have four adult children and seven grandchildren.
