The tributes are flowing in for Ben Bradlee, a journalism hero if ever there was one. While he always will be tied to Watergate, he also was an avid sports fan. He recognized the importance of building a strong sports section for the Washington Post.

Under the direction of sports editor George Solomon, Bradlee’s Post sports sections excelled with writers such as Thomas Boswell, Tony Kornheiser, Dave Kindred, Michael Wilbon, John Feinstein, Christine Brennan, Sally Jenkins and many more.

Solomon in today’s Post:

“When you’d be beaten by another paper (you’d make sure it did not happen often) on a story that interested Ben, he’d tear out the story and, with a red question mark, write: ‘What’s this?'”

I found this quote from Kornheiser on Bradley:

“I cannot describe to you what I felt, and I’m sure that so many, many others felt, when he walked among us. Ben could have been a king. Ben in that newsroom was King Arthur. I mean, he was.”

From Michael Wilbon’s farewell column in the Post in 2010:

“I arrived at the paper close enough to the end of Watergate that Robert Redford was still occasionally popping into the newsroom to visit Bob Woodward, the man he portrayed in “All The President’s Men.” As difficult as it is for me to accept the notion that I became a colleague of the world’s best reporter, it’s nothing compared with the complete awe, even 30 years later, I still feel whenever I’m in the company of Ben Bradlee, even if it’s just seeing him in the elevator.”