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Sid remembered by Star Tribune colleagues


Longtime sports reporter Sid Hartman passed away Sunday afternoon at the age of 100.


Several Vikings reflected on Sid's life and legacy following Minnesota's loss to Atlanta, and additional sports figures and reporters from around the country have showered social media with memories of their time with Hartman.


Among those who reflected were Hartman's Star Tribune colleagues Patrick Reusse, Jim Souhan and Chip Scoggins. Souhan wrote the following in his column:


Sid insinuated himself into every local sports organization and, as late as the 1980s, he seemed to have a say in who would get hired for the biggest jobs, including Minnesota athletic director and Vikings head coach.


The first time Sid and I worked closely together on a project was 1992. Jerry Burns had retired. Sid and I spent a hundred hours working the phones in the old Star Tribune building, trying to find out who would replace Burnsie.


I was talking regularly with Pete Carroll, a favorite of the old-school Vikings bosses. Sid was calling Vikings owners and telling them to hire Carroll, one of his close personal friends. One day, Carroll told me, "I'm not getting the job."


Sid picked up the phone and screamed at a Vikings owner, and that's how he got the scoop that the team was hiring Denny Green.


Scoggins used the headline "What was Sid Hartman like? There's no simple way to answer that question." Over Scoggins' 21 years with the paper, he said, he's been asked that question thousands of times – and it's not an easy question to answer.