Tributes pour in for longtime Bay Area sportswriters Carl Steward and Dave Newhouse

Two stalwarts of Bay Area sportswriting passed away over the weekend.

Carl Steward and Dave Newhouse, both of whom covered sports in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 50 years, died last weekend. Steward, who spent 50 years as a sports journalist, 42 of which took place in the Bay Area, succumbed to a four-year battle with cancer. He was 72. Newhouse, who spent six decades as a writer and joined the Oakland Tribune in 1964, died at 87 after years of battling COPD.

Tributes to the two longtime sportswriters poured in over the weekend, even reaching Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who acknowledged the contributions both men made to the Bay Area community during a press conference on Monday.

“Before I start, I just want to offer the Warriors’ condolences to the families of Dave Newhouse and Carl Steward, longtime columnists in Oakland and covered Bay Area sports for over 40 years each and both icons within the Bay and both passed away within the last week. So I want to, on behalf of the organization, just offer our condolences, and we’re thinking of both families,” Kerr said.

Both the Athletics and San Jose Sharks also issued statements about the passing of Steward and Newhouse.

A number of former colleagues, both journalists and athletes, spoke to the Bay Area News Group about the passing of Steward and Newhouse.

“I’m sick about this. Worked alongside these two guys for most of my career,” NBC Sports Bay Area Warriors reporter Monte Poole told the Bay Area News Group. “Read their wonderful work before entering the craft and as colleagues. Respected them as men and columnists. Never saw either be anything but affable.”

“I respected both of them and I remember both of them being so kind,” A’s Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley said.

“What I liked and appreciated about [Steward] was he wrote exactly what you said. If I said something, I knew that was exactly what I was going to read,” A’s World Series MVP Dave Stewart said of Steward. “I was really moved when I got the news. I’m really saddened,” he continued. “He was such a good human being.”