“The column is where the stars of the 20th-century sports page usually conducted their business, and even with longform now in flower, there are still those scribes who feel the column’s magnetic pull.

Stand by for another golden age of sportswriting. Perhaps even newspapers can yet be saved, writes Larry Ryan.

In October 1983, as she sat down to write her 301st column for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Diane Shah had a dream.