Published by The Evansville Courier

In fact, one afternoon at work he phoned his bookie to place a bet at the same time as federal and local police were raiding the premises. When a federal agent answered, Scism sputtered his way to safer ground.

Former Evansville Courier sportswriter Mike Boaz, exaggerating only slightly, claimed he spent the first six months of his career following Scism around the office putting out wastebasket fires his boss started. Scism smoked a pipe and often used numerous matches getting it lit. He tossed still hot matches in any direction.

Scism held The Courier record for the quickest editing job in the newspaper's history.

A young writer required seven or eight pages - pasted together end-to-end - to assess the merits of Bosse's football team in a preseason piece.

Receiving the story, Scism held the long strip of paper above his head, then scissored all but the first three pages into a handy wastebasket.

"Here, run this part," he said, handing the remnant to his page layout man.

His staff once sabotaged Scism in the late 1950s although they had no idea the prank would work out as well as it did. One Friday night, they placed an empty half-pint whiskey bottle in one of his side desk drawers, which were always stuffed to the brim.

On Monday, a distinguished visitor of Courier editor Earl Shaw wanted to meet Scism, since he'd heard so much about him. They came over to his sports office and soon were engaged in a lively discussion. Something came up - nobody knew exactly what - and Scism said: "Here, I've got that right here in my drawer."

He yanked open the drawer and the bottle popped about six inches into the air.

When the dignitaries departed, the sports staff shuddered, expecting a quick inquisition. But the conspirators remained mum and after a few minutes, Scism began to see the humor in the situation. He was chuckling when he left the office.

He'll hold the record forever as the most seasoned sports editor, covering 16 World Series, 11 Masters tournaments and 25 Kentucky Derbies. He was familiar with every football press box in the Big Ten Conference.

He also covered the 1960 Olympics in Rome, accompanying an Arad McCutchan tour to that event, plus other parts of Europe.

Many on the tour, meeting Dan for the first time, didn't think he authored all those "Sew It Seams" columns in The Courier, said McCutchan, retired University of Evansville basketball coach who died June 16, 1993.

"But once the mail began arriving from home, many with clips from his columns," McCutchan said, "they changed their tune. Dan mentioned many of them and soon the compliments were flying his way."

In his earlier days, Dan played golf with Titanic Thompson, the notorious gambler who would bet on anything, and held his own. Scism was a product of the free-wheeling Roaring '20s and never lost his zest for life.