Longtime Providence Journal columnist Bill Reynolds dies at age 78
Bill Reynolds, who spent almost four decades writing a popular column for The Providence Journal, as well as a dozen books, died Thursday. He was 78.
Reynolds was a basketball star for Barrington High School and Brown University in the 1960s, and continued playing in pickup games throughout his life.
More: Opinion/Patinkin: Farewell to Journal sports MVP Bill Reynolds
His long-running Saturday column — For What It’s Worth — was must-reading for Journal subscribers. In it, he’d opine on the Sports stories of the day, as well as his favorite books, movies and just about anything else that crossed his mind. Providence College basketball, the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, the Independent Man and out-of-state license plates at Rhode Island beaches were common themes.
Reynolds also authored several books — "Hope: A School, A Team, A Dream," “Fall River Dreams,” “Basketball Junkie” and “Born to Coach,” which he co-wrote with Rick Pitino — were just a few.
Reynolds stepped away from full-time duties at The Journal in summer 2019. He had started as a reporter in the paper’s Newport bureau in 1981. A few years later, he moved over to the Sports department, and it was a match made in heaven.
“The Journal was going to pay me to go to games and write about sports? Really? Can you sign me up twice?” he wrote in a 2019 column announcing his reduced workload.
Reynolds fully retired from the newspaper in early 2021.
More to come.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bill Reynolds, longtime Providence Journal columnist, dies at age 78.
