Caesar Alsop

'JUST A GREAT, GREAT MAN' Family, co-workers mourn fun-loving Daily News sports editor

By RICH HOFMANN
hofmanr@phillynews.com

It will come as no surprise to his family what his co-workers said, nor to his co-workers what his family said. That might be the greatest tribute of all to Caesar Alsop, the Daily News' sports editor, who died Saturday at the age of 53: that in all of his worlds, the genuine person shone through.

When his daughter Brandy said, "He was a jokester, always joking - you never knew when he was serious," his co-workers could hear the silent echo of a hundred funny stories over the years that Alsop told, often under deadline pressure.

When Yvonne Dennis, the Daily News' assistant city editor and someone who viewed Alsop as a mentor, said, "You would go to him with a problem, and he would always find a way," his wife Althea, along with children Brandy, Caesar II and Brandon, could hear a husband and a father who was their strength.

At home, Alsop was fun-loving but also the family disciplinarian. At work, he was the editor who refused to lose his sense of humor under pressure but also refused to coddle fools. How much he cared was obvious, in every setting. How little he craved personal attention was just as clear.

His death followed years of suffering with a heart condition, as well as a recent hospitalization.

"He always offered advice when we asked for it," said Brandy, 26. "But the most important thing was that he was just a very good dad. He always liked to be there. Birthdays, he was there. Field hockey games, he was there. He'd even come to the practices. He always went above and beyond that way."

Was he quiet in the stands or loud?

"He was pretty loud," Brandy said, laughing.

Alsop's 17-year-old son, Brandon, remembered a father who would come to his basketball games and tell him the truth about how he played, be it well or badly - but always with a dose of humor. Brandon said, "He always made us a priority."

"He would let me do what I wanted - he wouldn't force me to do something," he said. "He would go along, and then he would let me know if I did something wrong and compliment me if I did something right."

Althea, his wife of 26 years, remembered the comic scenes at the front door when a new boy came to call for Brandy.

"He was very stern when they came to the door, very protective," Althea said. "He scared them, actually. They would latch on to me before him. They'd come to the door and he would say, 'Excuse me, who are you?' and they were scared of him until they got to know him.

"He was very protective of his only girl, but he wasn't really like that. He was just kidding. He'd always say, 'Oh, I just want to see their reaction.' "

He worked nights and slept days for decades, a newspaper editor's life. His family came to accept the backward existence as normal.

"He was more of a night owl because he always worked at night," Brandy said. "During the day, he might be sleeping, or playing golf, or running errands. One thing he did enjoy was working in the yard. The man liked to plant all kinds of crazy things in the yard."

Like?

"Wildflowers," she said. "They're all over the place. He definitely didn't have a green thumb, but he thought he did."

Wildflowers, then. And golf. And following every tennis move made by the Williams sisters. And Tiger Woods. And just loving sports, even getting hooked on NCAA women's softball during his recent hospital stay.

"He was a great man," said Zack Stalberg, editor of the Daily News. "Put aside the newspaper-guy stuff and the sports stuff. He was just a great, great man."

One can only imagine, over 21 years at the Daily News, the number of personal and professional relationships that Alsop developed. Yesterday, some would recall a joke he told. Others would fondly mimic his soft, occasionally inaudible telephone voice. All, though, would tell stories of his calm amid the daily crises in a newspaper life, and of how he touched them.

"Since the death of my father 7 years ago, Caesar was very much a father to me," said Marcus Hayes, who covers the Phillies for the Daily News. "Not only was he a steady, stable authority figure, he also was a counselor; a fellow former reporter; an unbiased person of color with the ability to understand varied viewpoints with refreshing perspectives.

"Our shared experience as black men in this difficult business, and our shared views of the business, created a bond unique for me. It is a bond that I will sorely miss."

Caesar Allen Alsop was born Sept. 4, 1950, in Fredericksburg, Va., one of Betty Alsop's four children. Herdinia Catlett, Caesar's sister, said theirs was a middle-class upbringing in which her brother was always "very active and very happy."

"We used to call each other twins - we were only 10 months apart," Herdinia said. "We were real close, always stuck together. He just had a jovial attitude about things.

"He was an 'A' student, an honor-roll student. He was very smart, always was. He could read the newspaper when he was 4 years old. He never had to study - it would just come to him. And he loved sports."

Alsop played football at James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg, then attended the University of Maryland. His first job out of school was at the Wilmington News Journal. What began as an internship turned into a job that lasted 11 years, during which Alsop reported on local and pro sports, including the Sixers and Eagles, before turning to editing.

It was during those early years in Wilmington that he met Althea, his wife.

"We knew about each other since we were teenagers," she said. "But we didn't get together until much later. I was a friend of his sister, Herdinia, and we met at her wedding. In fact, he asked me out at the wedding. He was working in Delaware by then.

"He was just a very caring person. He always put other people ahead of himself. Whatever he could do, he would do. People always called him for advice - school kids, people like that. He always helped them as best he could."

It was a trait that followed Alsop to his workplace. He joined the staff of the Daily News in May 1983 and directed the sports department's copy desk and night operations. His titles and responsibilities grew with the years: night sports editor in 1991, deputy sports editor in 1993, sports editor in 2000.

"If you worked with him or went out with him, you had to love Caesar," said Pat McLoone, an assistant managing editor at the Daily News and Alsop's predecessor as sports editor. "We had complete and absolute trust and faith in each other, as friends and at work. I always felt the sports staff slept soundly knowing Caesar was at the helm. I know I did.

"No matter how odd or tense the situation, no matter how much work had to be done, he always found time to laugh about it and put you at ease."

Every writer on the staff has a story of Alsop bailing them out after midnight, providing them with extra time to write after deadline or extra space for their stories. In 15 years as the Daily News' Phillies writer, Paul Hagen had more of these encounters than anyone.

"Caesar was always so comforting," Hagen said. "You'd be on the West Coast, and the game would be tied in the ninth inning, and the deadline would be approaching, and you would call and say, 'Caesar, what are we going to do?' And he would say, 'Don't worry about it, big boy. Just get it to me as quick as you can.' He was just so unflappable."

Daily News sports columnist Bill Conlin said, "I am a frustrated jazz musician who settled for word flute, and Caesar never intruded on my solos. Once I hummed the first few bars for him, he indulged me my riffs and that is what great editors... have done to make it a great place to be a writer."

Speaking of riffs, it probably wouldn't surprise anyone who really knew him that Alsop attended Grateful Dead shows in 1994 and '95 and had as much fun as anybody in the Spectrum, according to Doug Darroch, a longtime friend and colleague on the sports desk. Darroch said Alsop was his primary sounding board for back-page headlines through the years. "Caesar was my partner in crime," he said.

Alsop was one of only a handful of black sports editors in the United States. His wife said, "He was always very proud of that. He really loved what he was doing.

"He really did love his job. Even with his sickness, he wanted to come back. He was going to try to come back to work [yesterday]; the doctor said it was OK. But he kept saying, 'I'm so weak. I feel so tired.' I think his heart just wasn't up to par."

Alsop is survived by his wife Althea, daughter Brandy and sons Caesar II and Brandon; by his mother, Betty Alsop, and by brother John and sisters Margaret Fennell and Herdinia Catlett.

A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Mother U.A.M.E. Church, 701 E. 5th Street in Wilmington. Burial will be Thursday in Fredericksburg, Va.; further details are incomplete. Donations can be made to the American Heart Association.