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NEWS
Ernie through the years
Born: Utica, N.Y., on Sept. 3, 1921, and grew up in Greenwich, Conn., where he got his first newspaper job at the Greenwich Times at age 16.
Education: Came to Marshall University in 1940 to study journalism, but school was interrupted by World War II. Entered the service in 1942 and returned to Marshall in 1946, where he was editor of the Parthenon.
Huntington Advertiser: Salvatore joined the staff of Huntington's afternoon newspaper, the Advertiser, in 1948. "The four happiest days of my professional life were the days I was hired -- twice by The Greenwich (Conn.) Time, twice by The Herald-Dispatch or its predecessors," Salvatore wrote in 1998.
Married: Joanne Mary Pinckard of Huntington in 1949. They had five children.
First award: Won his first state press award in 1951 with an interview with A.B. "Happy" Chandler, a former Kentucky governor and senator who had recently stepped down as major league baseball commissioner.
Sports editor: Named sports editor of the Huntington Advertiser in 1953, and named sports editor of the Sunday Herald-Advertiser in 1967.
First column: Salvatore's first sports column was published in 1953 on Bill Mire, the manager of the Guyan Creamery baseball team.
Sports banquets: In 1969, Salvatore wrote a classic column on the ups and downs of sports banquets. "The speeches will be too long, the cocktail hour too short."
Executive sports editor: Named executive sports editor of The Herald-Dispatch and the Huntington Advertiser in 1970.
Marshall plane crash: Salvatore worked the night of the crash and covered the events in the weeks that followed. But he later recalled his feelings did not come out until later because there was so much work to be done. "I had to do it that way; we let the personal reactions come later."
Full-time columnist: In 1975, Salvatore stepped away from managing the sports department to writing his "Down In Front" column five days a week. In addition to keeping a close eye on Marshall sports, Ernie covered a wide range of sports topics from the Cincinnati Reds to boxing to his annual Kentucky Derby columns on Mary ex-Model.
Attempted retirement: Salvatore retired from full-time work with the Huntington newspapers in 1988, but continued to write columns in various capacities until 2007.
Sportin' Life: Salvatore's book "Sportin' Life" was published in 1998 with a collection of more than 100 columns, culled from the estimated 7,000 columns he had written for the Huntington newspapers.
Most recent award: Salvatore won a 2003 West Virginia Press Association award at age 82 for a column on Marshall's shooting guard Ronald Blackshear and the impact of the three-point shot on modern college basketball.
'We Are Marshall': Salvatore was portrayed in the "We Are Marshall" movie by actor Mark Oliver, and appeared himself in the Memorial Fountain scene at the end of the movie.
Ernie Salvatore Press Box: The press box on Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards Stadium was remodeled in 2008 and named for Salvatore through a $25,000 grant from The Herald-Dispatch. Salvatore remarked that he was flattered. "It's nice. I brought my family in to see it (from out of state). They said, 'Gee, Pop, we didn't know you were such a big shot.' "
Scholarship Fund: In September 2008, more than 300 people attended a special tribute dinner for Salvatore, raising $25,000 for an endowed scholarship at Marshall University in the his name. "I'm overwhelmed," Salvatore said. "I wish I was 20 years younger, so I could start all over."
