Legendary Journalist Ray Didinger To Take Center Stage In West Chester

WEST CHESTER, PA — While the Philadelphia Eagles are practicing hard for their September 11 opening game against the Detroit Lions in Ford Field, recently retired Pro Football Hall of Fame legendary journalist Ray Didinger is preparing for his next act.

Three months ago, Didinger retired from his 53-year career as a beloved sports journalist, author, radio talk show host, playwright and theater producer.

Five days before the Eagles’ season opener, Didinger is set to talk about his latest book, “Finished Business: My Fifty Years of Headlines, Heroes and Heartaches,” at Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center in West Chester.

Didinger, a native of Delaware County, who hosted “Eagles PostGame Live on NBC Sports Philadelphia and a show on WIP sports radio on weekends with Glen Macnow will take the A. Roy Smith Mainstage at Uptown for a presentation.

The presentation is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m and includes an interview by Macnow, his WIP radio partner for 21 years. The evening will close with an audience question and answer session.

It’s likely that Didinger will provide his take on this year’s Eagles season with Jalen Hurts, QB-1 at the helm.

No one knows the heartaches of a Philadelphia Eagles fan better than Didinger, who has covered the team for over a half of a century.

Didinger wrote in the preface of the 2005 edition of “The Eagles Encyclopedia” that Eagles break the fans’ hearts, but they keep coming back.
Why?

Didinger explains it like this:

“ During the run to Super Bowl XXXIX, the Eagles adopted the theme, “One City, One Team, One Dream.”

“It was a sentiment Philadelphians, from blue collar to blue blood, felt long before the marketing department put it on a T-shirt,” Didinger wrote.” It was part of our civic identity, something pulled this diverse region in one heartbeat.”

Didinger said that for most people living in the Philadelphia region the Eagles are family.

“The Eagles are something you plan for,” Didinger said. “You watch the game with family and friends, and there is an investment of time and emotion that is unique.”

During Didinger’s talk, he will look back at his career covering the Philadelphia sports scene.

Didinger is the only print journalist thttps://uptownwestchester.org/o cover the Flyers’ Stanley Cup Championships in 1974 and 1975, the Phillies 1980 World Series Championship, the 76ers Championship in 1983-84 and the now-legendary Philadelphia Eagles victory in Super Bowl LII over the New England Patriots.

He was there for every game and every parade.

Didinger was the first print journalist inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame and as a columnist for the Philadelphia Bulletin and Philadelphia Daily News.

He was named Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year five times.

In 1995, he won the Dick McCann Award for long and distinguished reporting on pro football and his name was added to the writer's honor roll at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He also won six Emmy Awards as a writer and producer for NFL Films.

VIP tickets, including a reception and an autographed copy of the book, are $120 and standard tickets are $35 in advance or $40 at the door.

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center is located at 226 N. High Street. More information and tickets are available here.