David Halberstam, who died in an automobile accident in Northern California last week, deserves the plaudit of American patriot.  As a young reporter his courage and tenacity under difficult circumstances brought needed truth to America during one of the most troubling periods of American history.

It was understandable that when Halberstam died at 73 that he was in the midst of a project.  An ambitious writer who remained busy, the accident that took his life in Menlo, Park California came as he was being driven to an interview with Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle.  

Halberstam was interviewing Tittle about what many called the greatest game in pro football history, the overtime 23-17 win of the Baltimore Colts over Tittle's team, the New York Giants, in the 1958 championship game in that historic era almost a decade before the Super Bowl made its debut.

In addition to his reporting and historical books, Halberstam had a reverence for sports that saw him write about the famous 1949 pennant race when Joe Dimaggio came off the injury list to lead the New York Yankees to the American League title over Boston and the 1964 World Series in which Bob Gibson pitched the St. Louis Cardinals to the championship over the Yankees.