December 29, 1927 - October 12, 2015
Famed Oakland Tribune horse racing writer, handicapper dead at 87
OAKLAND
-- Back when the Bay Area was home to multiple race tracks filled with
fans, Jack Menges was the best of the best at picking the winners for
bettors.
Menges, who spent 43 years as an Oakland Tribune
sports writer, most of that time as its horse-racing reporter and
handicapper, died October 12, 2015 at age 87. The Livermore resident
died of complications from Parkinson's disease.
"He
was part of racing in the heydays when there were big crowds and horse
racing was the only form of legal gambling," said Sam Spear, director of
media relations at Golden Gate Fields. "He was very popular and highly
respected by the horse men: the trainers, owners, jockeys. He was a
longtime fixture in Northern California racing, great at coming up with
long shots. That's what fans like."
An
Oakland native, Menges first worked for the Tribune as a 14-year-old
paperboy making deliveries in his family's neighborhood above Lake
Merritt. He was hired as a Tribune copy boy and was quickly promoted in
1947 to prep sports writer because of his passion for all sports.
Polio nearly killed him in 1950, but he went on to race midget cars at
the Oakland Speedway. There, he met his first wife and the mother of his
four children, Phyllis, who herself raced hardtops. Phyllis died in
1974 of a kidney problem, but Menges was lucky to find love again, his
daughter Robin Neal said. He met his second wife, Colleen, at Parents
Without Partners and was married to her for 25 years up until his death.
He told the Brentwood Press in 2010 that he started his 36-year stint
as a the Tribune's horse-racing reporter and handicapper, beating out
more than 40 other candidates, in 1950 after his predecessor's
unexpected death after a night at the races.
He evolved into one of the most well-respected handicappers and
horse-racing journalists in the state. He spent 12-hour days at the
tracks he considered his office, while at Tribune headquarters, most of
his colleagues knew him only by name.
"I was one of the few people at work who knew what he looked like,"
said retired Tribune assistant sports editor John Simmonds. "He was the
best because he always did his homework. He kept meticulous records and
was at the track bright and early every day talking to jockeys and
trainers before he started handicapping."
Menges worked as a jockey's agent on the side, matching riders to
horses, until the Tribune deemed such work a conflict of interest and
made him stop, Neal said.
During the summers, he'd bring his family along with him as he worked the Northern California fair circuit.
His favorites memories included watching the Bay Meadows and Golden
Gate Fields races beside notoriously private baseball great Joe
DiMaggio, who hid in the press boxes to avoid the public, and covering
the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Neal said.
Neal shared her father's love of horse racing, even filling in for him
for four months when he was on medical leave. It was then, she said, she
saw all letters that her dad would receive from Tribune readers
thanking him for helping them win.
He almost never bet money himself, and when he did it was $2 on a long-shot horse making its debut run.
After retiring from the Tribune in 1990, Menges moved from Castro
Valley to Brentwood and took up photography. He would shoot the auto
races in East Contra Costa County, and was eventually hired by a
race-track promoter for his work, Spear said.
Spear is planning to honor Menges on his TV show, "The Golden Gate
Report," and KNBR radio show "At the Track." "A lot of people who were
part of that era are no longer with us. When he retired, we lost one of
the best," Spear said.
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