Kegg Set Example for Fans, Writers

He was sports editor for the Cumberland Evening Times and the Cumberland Sunday Times from 1946 until 1981. In those 35 years, he wrote approximately 8,000 sports columns and continued to write a column and periodical feature stories for the Times-News even after his retirement.

"What Suter Kegg meant to the Cumberland Times-News and its readers cannot be overstated," said Times-News Managing Editor Jan Alderton, at the time of his induction. "For six decades, sports was his life. He was a brilliant storyteller who loved covering everything from Little League to the Baltimore Orioles playing in the World Series."

Kegg began his newspaper career selling papers in downtown Cumberland at age nine. At age 11, he was a part-time inserter in the mailroom where he later became a full-time copy boy and extra proofreader. He became a full-time member of the sports staff in 1941, and after returning from service in the Army Air Corp he was promoted to sports editor in 1947.

In addition to covering local sports, Kegg covered the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, University of Maryland athletics, the Baltimore Colts, Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers. For decades he served as state chairman for Heisman Trophy voters in Maryland.

In 1956, Kegg broke the story nationwide that Wilt Chamberlain, as a junior in high school, had played pro basketball in Cumberland against the Cumberland Dukes under the name of George Marcus. Chamberlain would deny this until admitting in his 1974 autobiography that Kegg had the story right.

Kegg was an example for sportswriters and fans in the Cumberland area, said Times-News Sports Editor Mike Burke. "No matter the story he covered, he covered it with an enjoyment and a sense of fair play that came through to his reader, even if the reader’s favorite team had lost the game Suter was covering."