Longtime Binghamton sportswriter and columnist John W. Fox has died. He was 96 years old.

According to an obituary placed by his family, Fox died at his Port Dickinson home on June 2.

Fox filed his first sports report for the Binghamton Press in June 1949, writing about a golf event in Vestal. He had been hired by the Press shortly after he graduated from Syracuse University. He was became the newspaper's sports editor.

Fox retired from the Press & Sun-Bulletin in December 1993 but he continued writing a twice-monthly column for another 17 years.

Fox was inducted into the Greater Binghamton Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.

John Fox at a Greater Binghamton Hall of Fame induction dinner in 2018. Photo: Provide by Anthony Quagliata
John Fox at a Greater Binghamton Hall of Fame induction dinner in 2018. (Photo: Provided by Anthony Quagliata)
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Fox was predeceased by his wife of 59 years, Theresa Sullivan Fox. He is survived by four daughters - Elizabeth Nassar, Barb Fox Carosella, Maureen Fox and Kimberley Fox.

John Wilson Fox was born on August 10, 1925 in Ellicottville, New York. He began writing about sports while a high school student, covering local baseball teams. He was drafted into the Army during World War Two, after which he wrote articles for Stars and Stripes. While studying at Syracuse University, he wrote for the student newspaper, The Daily Orange.

A Funeral Mass will be offered at St. Paul's Church in Binghamton on June 14 at 10 a.m. The family will receive friends at J.A. McCormack Sons Funeral Home in Binghamton on June 13 from 3 to 7 p.m.

Fox signed off his final column in the Press & Sun-Bulletin on June 27, 2010 with: "I'm gone; the pleasure has been mine."

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Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.

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