UPI sports writer Moffit dead at 82

BERKLEY LAKE, Ga., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- David M. Moffit, a veteran Southern sports writer and editor for United Press International for more than 50 years, died after a bout with heart problems.

He was 82.

A tough Marine who fought in two wars, but also a devoted family man, Moffit of Berkley Lake, Ga., died Friday night at a Gwinnett County hospital, his wife Margie, a retired Atlanta Public Schools teacher, said.

Services were scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Crowell Brothers Peachtree Chapel with burial at Peachtree Memorial Park.

During a long and colorful career, Moffit covered most of the major sports events of his day, including the Masters, the Super Bowl and countless other football bowls, the Summer Olympics, the World Series, college basketball's Final Four and many others on the college and professional levels.

For many years, he wrote a weekly column "Southern Sidelines" that ran regularly in newspapers throughout the South. His plain, unvarnished views were very popular. As one fan put it, if Moffit's grocery list had carried his byline, "I would have read it."

His articles often were translated into other languages and used around the world. He was noted as a master statistician in a statistics-wild business.

Moffit worked with the best of his profession of which he was a valued member and earned respect from the men and women he covered. His wife said he was mentioned, for example, in the book, "Aaron," by Henry Aaron with Furman Bisher, as being influential in Aaron's decision to seek Babe Ruth's long-standing home run record.

At the time of his death, Moffit was still working for UPI as a sports writer, still holding credentials for, attending and writing about the Masters, and covering the Falcons and Braves on occasion.

Moffit was born June 10, 1927, in Roanoke, Va. He entered Lynchburg College in Virginia as a teenager but interrupted his studies to join the Marines, after fibbing about his age, to enter World War II. After the war, he returned to Lynchburg to get his degree and marry coed Margie Eaton.

Moffit worked for the Marine Gazette during his college years and, as a reservist, was called back with the outbreak of the Korean war.

He retired as a lieutenant and accepted an offer in 1952 to join United Press in Richmond. He moved his family to Atlanta three years later.

Moffit is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, a brother, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren