The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is saddened to learn of the passing of former board member Fritz Kreisler, who was a longtime member of the Kansas City Star sports department. Freisler passed away on Sunday in Independence. He was 84.
The following appeared in the Star today:
Kreisler covered high school sports, the Big Eight and, for one year, the Chiefs. He later became The Star’s executive sports editor.
“He loved journalism,” said Emily Kreisler, Fritz’s wife. “And he did it all.”
Kreisler came to work at The Star on Oct. 22, 1957, and retired the first time in 1993. About a month later, he returned to the newspaper and primarily served as a copy editor until 2014.
When Kreisler started, stories were transmitted via Western Union. Last year, he sat for a series of interviews that can be found on YouTube.
In one of the interviews, Kreisler recounted his first newspaper experience. He was 10 and living in Clinton, Mo. He had been keeping up with World War II, and in 1942 he decided to start his own newspaper, the Clinton Chronicle.
Visitation is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at D.W. Newcomer’s Sons Noland Road Chapel at 509 S. Noland Road in Independence.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church, 400 W. Maple Ave. in Independence.