Gordon Williams

Gordon was best known in the Reading area as a newspaperman and, in particular, a sports editor. Born in Scranton, PA, Gordon began his newspaper career as an office boy with the Scranton Truth (1910). He moved on from Scranton to work as a reporter for the New York World, the New York Herald Tribune, the Pittsburgh Post and the Philadelphia Evening Ledger. He became sports editor of the Binghamton Press (NY), one of the first newspapers in the world to devote two full pages to sports (1919). He later returned to Scranton to work at the Scranton Republican, and while there, became interested in boxing and began managing prize fighters. That interest continued after he came to Reading, managing fighters and operating the Keystone Boxing Club, which operated at the Reading armory at Rose and Walnut Streets (1925-33). He had come to Reading when the Reading Tribune first started publication and then took a job as a police reporter at the Reading Eagle once the Tribune ceased publication (1926). He remained there until moving over to the Reading Times as sports editor, a position he held for 21 years (1933). He became managing editor of the Times (1954) and later an editor (1967). Gordon was the first licensed boxing referee in Pennsylvania and handled the first bout under the McBride Act when Billy Rocap, sports editor of the Philadelphia Morning Ledger, was named chairman of the state boxing commission. He was also active in golfing, bowling, and in his younger years, baseball. He won the Riverside Championship and for 10 to 12 years, was in the top 10 of the Berks County Amateur championship flights. Before retiring from bowling, he averaged 185, rolling in the old City League. Williams was “editor emeritus” of the Reading Times after his retirement on March 1, 1973. He died on March 12, 1975.

Deceased