Colorado newspapers were a really big deal in the 1940s and 50s, and sports coverage was also a big deal. Sports stories were covered in great detail, with lots of photos and colorful language. Sportswriters were minor celebrities, too and had their own nicknames. From the Rocky Mountain News, Chet Nelson was called the "Prophet of the Press Box" and Manny Boody was tagged the "Peter Pan of the Preps." Boody was also know as a "Bulldog for Details."
Manny Boody was born Manuel Budisavljevich in Trinidad, Colorado in 1913, the son of John and Ellen (Yelena) Budisavljevich, who were immigrants from Lika, Serbia. His father worked as a machinist in Tabasco, Colorado, a coal town that served the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company in Pueblo.
In 1915, the family moved to Globeville, where his father was employed in meat packing for the next 40 years. Boody and his brother Pete attended North High School and Manny eventually graduated from the University of Denver. His career as a sportswriter began at the Denver Post, but was interrupted by Pearl Harbor. He returned to the Post after his service in the Army, but in 1948, he switched to the Rocky Mountain News. At the News, Boody covered high school sports while moonlighting as a scout for the Brooklyn, later Los Angeles, Dodgers.
In 1962, Boody was elected president of the Denver Press Club and served on the board with Gene Amole and Dusty Saunders. In 1990, he was named to the Colorado High School Association's (CHSA) Hall of Fame.
"Manny was the legend," said Bert Borgmann, assistant commissioner of the CHSA. No one knew more than Manny."
The CHSA's Hall of Fame remembered Manny Boody as . . . "one of the most popular and respected media persons ever associated with high school sports. . . Manny Boody covered prep sports for 30 years for the Rocky Mountain News. His personal attention to the students who played elevated him to a revered status within the prep community. Boody believed that as many names as possible needed to be in the newspaper to recognize those who played."
Manny Boody died on March 5, 1996 and is buried at Fort Logan.
Photo courtesy of the Colorado High School Association
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