Clyde Bolton

Bolton graduated from Alexandria High School in 1954 where he lettered in football for Lou Scales. His athletic career ended after high school but his interest in sports did not. He was a sports writer for the Anniston Star and two other newspapers before spending the final 40 years of his 46-year sports writing career with the Birmingham News, retiring in 2001. Bolton was named Alabama’s sports writer of the year three times. Three other years he was chosen as the state’s sports columnist of the year.

Bolton received the Permatex Award in 1969, given annually for the best story in the nation on short track auto racing. He received the American Motorsports Award of Excellence in 1985 for the nation’s best story on Winston Cup racing.

In 1988 the Atlanta chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, the national journalism honorary, gave Bolton its Excellence in Journalism Award for his sports commentary. He is also the recipient of the All-American Football Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Writing.

Bolton began writing books, both non-fiction and fiction, in 1972. He has authored six novels and eleven non-fiction works, most of those on college football in the South or stock car racing.

written by Joe Estep