Longtime sportswriter, editor for Times followed his passion

The world's luckiest man has finally used all his earthly good fortune. Mike Kupper, husband, dad, grandpa and longtime sportswriter/editor, died Wednesday of renal failure. He was 88.

- BY MIKE KUPPER

But what a life it was! Realizing fairly early that at 5-foot-8 and 130 pounds, a desired career as an athlete was not realistic, Mike thought that if he couldn't play the games well, maybe he could write well about them and set out to become a sportswriter. And, with some fantastic breaks along the way, he became one, first at his hometown newspaper, the Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman, then on to 25 years at the Milwaukee Journal, capping his career with a 23-year stint as senior assistant sports editor at the Los Angeles Times.