He was a Tampa original. There will be no more Tom McEwens. An era, as well as a legend, has passed.
To say that Tom McEwen, who died at 88 on Sunday, had been the sports editor of the Tampa Tribune would be like saying Abraham Lincoln had been a lawyer. Doesn’t tell you much.
McEwen was a politician with a notepad instead of a portfolio. He knew everybody worth knowing. His foremost priority was loyalty to and progress for the town he loved: Tampa. He worked behind the scenes to help make happen what he would later chronicle and comment on in that signature prose of his–a conversational mix of run-on sentences and Western Union fragments. From stadiums to an NFL franchise to a Super Bowl to a hockey franchise to Yankee spring training to football at USF. For a city such as Tampa and a region such as Tampa Bay, these became invaluable assets that were instrumental in ratcheting this market into big league status.
Conflict of interest? Of course. But when your calling is can-do booster, hands-on ambassador, hybrid activist, and economic-development catalyst, the rules are uniquely flexible. Especially if you can deliver. Tom McEwen did. The greater good was his goal. He was the perfect antidote for this city’s growing pains. He practically willed Tampa into the big time.
Thought here is. Tom McEwen was a natural resource and a helluva nice guy. This city–and this area–will always be in his debt.