Ray Didinger

The Prince of the City’s sports soul would rather that you don’t call him that. He would much rather have you call him “Ray,” short for Ray Didinger. The Hall of Fame sportswriter has been a constant conduit for over five decades, bringing sports fans everywhere from backstage at a WWE event with Sergeant Slaughter and the Iron Sheik, to rolling down Broad Street on the Flyers’ Stanley Cup parade route, to spitting verbal barbs at Larry Bowa, to looking down on U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4, 2018 to witness something Philadelphia sports fans never thought they would see — a Super Bowl championship.

“When I was a kid, I opened the daily newspaper, turned to the sports page, and read the columns by Sandy Grady, Larry Merchant, and Stan Hochman,” writes Ray Didinger in his new memoir on covering Philadelphia sports. “When we went to Eagles training camp, I saw the Bulletin’s Hugh Brown watching practice and taking notes. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

PHILADELPHIA— Author Ray Didinger will discuss his memoir, "Finished Business: My Fifty Years of Headlines, Heroes, and Heartaches," in conversation with radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, at the Free Library of Philadelphia in a free virtual event, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 26. Didinger opens his lively memoir with the...