SPORTSFAN - LOOK IT UP.
January 19, 2001
by Bill Hogan

Sportsfan - it's not a word - for now. Sportscaster is a word. Sportswriter is a word, as is sportsman and sportswoman.

Are these people any more vital to the world of sports than the fan? I can't even type sportsfan in my word processor without getting a spelling error. I have to ignore the annoying squiggly line under it, or turn the spell check feature off (which is not really an option given my typing skills).

Wordsmith's that arbitrarily concatenate sports with other groups - writers, broadcasters, men and women - seem to snub the very group that gives life to professional sports in this country.

115Sports is now and forever declaring the use of the singular word sportsfan as legitimate. I will be notifying Webster (as well as the makers of my spell check software).

It borders on conspiracy when sports and fans are intentionally kept apart. If a writer of sports is a sportswriter and a broadcaster of sports is a sportscaster, I proclaim that a fan of sports is a SPORTSFAN!!

I'm glad we cleared that up. I hope that satisfies those of you who emailed me regarding the 115sports.com slogan: "Created weekly by sportsfans, for sportsfans". I appreciate your grammatical input, but I'm sticking to my guns.

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