Harvey Is Named Sports Editor

Randy Harvey, assistant managing editor for sports at the Baltimore Sun, was named Thursday to succeed Bill Dwyre as sports editor of the Los Angeles Times.

Harvey, 54, a former longtime sports reporter, columnist and editor for The Times, left Los Angeles two years ago to take control of the Sun’s sports department.

“Randy has the experience, imagination and skill to lift our sports coverage yet another notch,” Times Managing Editor Doug Frantz said in a memo to the staff announcing the appointment. “He is a worthy successor to a legend like Bill.”

Dwyre, 61, has been promoted to the new position of executive sports editor to aid in the transition, then ultimately will assume a writing position in the department. Sports editor for 25 years, Dwyre has extensive reporting experience and for several years has voiced an interest in giving up his managerial duties for writing.

“I think Doug Frantz has made an inspired hire,” Dwyre said. “I don’t think there’s any finer sports journalism mind in the country than Randy Harvey.

“I like to think the L.A. Times sports section has been among the very best for many years, and I expect it to get even better.”

During much of Dwyre’s tenure, Harvey played a significant role in the department. He joined The Times in 1981 -- as Dwyre’s first hire -- and covered the “Showtime” Lakers of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

He became the lead Olympic reporter and then a columnist before assuming a managerial position as senior assistant sports editor in 2000. He continued in that role, helping to shape the direction of The Times’ sports coverage, until his appointment in Baltimore.

“This is great. I get to be Gene Bartow replacing John Wooden,” Harvey said. “Bill Dwyre is the best sports editor who has ever been, and it’s a great honor, as well as a challenge, to be chosen to replace him. I will do my best to maintain the high standards of sports journalism that he instilled in the section.”

Before first coming to The Times from the Dallas Times Herald, Harvey worked for two other papers in Texas, along with the Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Daily News. He is married to Maryann Hudson Harvey, a former sportswriter for The Times, and they have an 8-year-old son, David.

Harvey is expected to start in early April.