When the Game was Simple and the Song Was Sweet
A newspaperman's story remembered

by Bob Hilliard

"Was it sitting in the cockpit of Charles Lindbergh's plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, that inspired 10-year-old Bob Hilliard to pursue a career as a journalist, writing about people?" -- Lu Dumont, from the Foreword

Journey down memory lane with one of New Hampshire's legendary newspapermen. Bob Hilliard's career spanned about fifty years as he interviewed and wrote about some of the best known athletes and sports personalities of the twentieth century. But Bob had another side of his career: his great love of music, the theatre, and especially opera.

So here are tales of Bobby Orr and Larry Bird, of Ted Williams and Ty Cobb, and of Red Rolfe and Babe Ruth. But here also are memories of Guy Lombardo and Lester Lanin, of Kitty Carlisle and Tammy Grimes, and of Beverly Sills and Pavrotti.

He began writing for his aunt's Franklin Journal Transcript, progressed to the Concord Monitor, and spent most of his career with The Union Leader and the New Hampshire Sunday News. He covered the Celtics and the Bruins, and went to spring training and the World Series with the Red Sox, while mixing in performances at the Metropolitan Opera.

Not one to merely observe, Bob became friends with many of his subjects entertaining them in his home and visiting them in the dugout, back stage, at banquets, and at parties.

Here are forty-four stories from the fields of sports and the halls of music, an eclectic review of the amazing career of Bob Hilliard, newspaperman.

Nonfiction. Memoir. $25.00, 6" x 9", 338 pages, paperback, ISBN 1-931807-10-8

Contact Information

Bob Hilliard Jr.
E-mail: normanathastings@aol.com