Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Culver City Observer Editor was considered the foremost authority on the 20th century Lakers
Mitch Chortkoff
Mitch Chortkoff often wrote about Showtime Lakers era players Kareem Abdul Jabar and Magic Johnson
Update: Services will be held on Monday July 23, 2:00 pm at Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills - Mount Sinai Chapel, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles
Sportswriter Mitch Chortkoff died Wednesday in hospice of complications of diabetes. The former editor of our sister publication, the Culver City Observer, was 78 years old.
Mitch started out as the public information officer for the Los Angeles Lakers, in the 1960's. After leaving the Lakers in 1978, he began to write for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook and later the Outlook, eventually becoming sports editor there.
Mitch was associated with the Showtime Lakers. He often wrote about Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabar, and James Worthy, and became to some extent associated with them.
More recently, Mitch wrote for the Culver City Observer, where he worked for its publisher Steven Hadland.
Funeral services are planned for Monday.
The southern California Jewish sports Hall of Fame wrote in 1990: Mitch Chortkoff has been one of Southern California's most respected sportswriters since 1965. Best known for his coverage of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and Southern California Copley Newspapers, he has also reported on the Los Angeles Dodgers and college and high school sports.
Chortkoff covered the Lakers for seven years at the Herald-Examiner and 16 seasons with the Copley Group, for whom he was sports editor and featured sports writer. At publication of this book, he is sports editor of the Coastal Community Newspapers.
Mitch has served as President of the Southern California Basketball Writers Association, and has been an officer with the National Pro Basketball Writers of America.
Brooklyn-born, he has been a Los Angeles area resident since age five. http://scjewishsportshof.com/chortkoff.html
Reader Comments(1)
Shack writes:
The Lakers have lost one of their best friends. Los Angeles journalism has lost one of its best writers. No one could write a better or faster game story, especially when needing to catch a flight back home. He knew what made him happy and seeked little else than enjoyment in life. One of those joys was sharing stories about Chick Hearn. He had oh so many.
07/19/2018, 11:50 am