Ray Didinger

Columnist. Author. Radio/TV broadcaster. Filmmaker. Playwright. Ray Didinger has done it all over five decades of covering professional sports, bringing warmth and wisdom to every role. As a print journalist, Didinger was honored five times as Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, for columns that appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News and the Evening and Sunday Bulletin. His name was added to the writers' honor roll at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995, when he won the Dick McCann Award for long and distinguished coverage of pro football. Turning from newspapers to visual storytelling, Didinger won six Emmy(R) Awards as a writer and producer for NFL Films. He has written 12 books on sports, including three bestsellers: The Eagles Encyclopedia: Champions Edition (2018); One Last Read, a collection of newspaper columns; and The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies, co-written with his radio partner, Glen Macnow. His newest book, Finished Business, was published in April 2021 by Temple University Press. Didinger's lifelong friendship with his boyhood idol, the effervescent Philadelphia Eagles receiver Tommy McDonald, became the subject of a play, "Tommy and Me," written by Didinger. The show has had successful runs at FringeArts in Philadelphia, the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington, the Media Theatre and the Hershey Theatre. Didinger is a contributing pro football analyst for 94WIP in Philadelphia and NBC Sports Philadelphia.