CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QC Life) - Larry Keith joined QC Life to share stories behind the scenes at Sports Illustrated.
Larry Keith was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1947 and raised in Charlotte, where he attended South Mecklenburg High School. After two years at UNC‑Charlotte he transferred to UNC‑Chapel Hill in 1967, serving as sports editor of The Daily Tar Heel and sports director of WCHL.
He interned at The Charlotte News for six years and, following a brief but award-winning stint as a newsman at WAYS, joined Sports Illustrated in April 1970. Keith spent 49 years living in New York, 34 of them as an SI writer and editor, and returned to Charlotte with his wife Carolyn, a former SI photo editor, in 2019.
At Sports Illustrated Keith primarily covered baseball and college basketball before overseeing those beats as a senior editor. He wrote 19 cover stories on figures such as Magic Johnson, Pete Rose, Tom Seaver, Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin and Tommy Lasorda, and his long professional relationship with Dean Smith is the stuff of many newsroom anecdotes.
As assistant managing editor he conceived Sports Illustrated for Kids and later directed magazine development projects for Time Inc.; he also taught sports journalism at Columbia, appeared regularly on USA Network’s Sports Probe, judged sports Emmys, and as editorial projects director created three Official Olympic Souvenir Programs, earning three Time Inc. President’s Awards.
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Keith is the author of “A Coach’s World” (with Notre Dame’s Digger Phelps) and the recent “Touch ’Em All: My Life and Career at Sports Illustrated”. He is a member of the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, has served on alumni and journalism school boards, and is an ordained Presbyterian elder who has served congregations on Long Island and in Charlotte; he and Carolyn are parents to four adult children and eight grandchildren.
His autobiography is a lively, behind‑the‑scenes look at sports and the magazine industry — fast‑paced and engaging, though readers should be prepared for one unexpected, bone‑rattling detour along the way.
“Touch’ Em All” is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and BookBaby Bookshop.
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