R.I.P.: Sid Hartman, Voice of Minnesota Sports, Dead at 100

Sid Hartman

Sid Hartman, the man who for 75 years with the Star-Tribune and 65 years with WCCO 830 AM, died Sunday after dominating the sports world across Minnesota.  He was 100 years old, according to the station's website.

He has described his early life as difficult.  It was a very poor area full of Jewish immigrants.  Sid’s father was an immigrant from Russia.

When Sid was 10-years old, he met a famous newspaper writer and WCCO Radio personality he would one day work with, Halsey Hall who was one of the legendary personalities in Twin Cities’ history.  He wasn’t the only big personality either.

Sid was a corner newspaper boy.  He would bike to the paper, pick up his stack and sell them in downtown Minneapolis.  Assording to the Star-Tribune obit, Hartman started selling newspapers in 1928, a 9-year-old kid pedaling his bicycle to Newspaper Alley, where he would buy 100 copies of the Minneapolis Star, the Journal, the Morning Tribune or the Evening Tribune for $1.10, then sell them for two cents apiece.

"If you sold 100, you made 90 cents,'' Hartman said.

In 1955, WCCO Radio general manager Larry Haeg hired Sid to bring sports news to the radio.  Sid created “Sports Heroes”, which were a daily interview with the biggest names in sports.  Whether it was a local athlete or stars for the New York Yankees, Sid could track them down, according to WCCO.

In 1957, he became the sports editor of the Minneapolis Tribune. For more than a decade, he would write his column six days a week, run the sports department and also take care of his radio duties at WCCO.

Over the course of decades, Sid Hartman was a fixture on the radio and in the newspaper.  Even into his 100th year, Sid was still heard each week on-air and in print.  COVID certainly slowed his travels around town, but Sid was still seen at games, practices, in the offices of head coaches and across the Twin Cities until the end of his life.

Sid Hartman died surrounded by his close family including son Chad who confirmed his passing on Sunday afternoon.