John Underwood, a stylish writer at Sports Illustrated for nearly a quarter century whose rollicking account of a fishing trip in Florida with the baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams led to their collaborations on two highly regarded books, died on April 12 at his home in Miami. He was 88.
His wife, Donna Underwood, confirmed the death, but did not cite a specific cause.
Mr. Underwood joined Sports Illustrated in 1961 during the magazine’s decades-long heyday, and would work alongside other star writers like Frank Deford, Mark Kram, Dan Jenkins, Roy Blount Jr., Jack Olsen and William Nack.
He specialized in covering college football, including its shady side, but he also wrote about boxing, golf, baseball and professional football, as well as the impact of gambling on sports, players and fans. In 1982, he was the ghostwriter for an article about the former N.F.L. player Don Reese that revealed that he and many other players had used cocaine and how the drug “now controls and corrupts the game because so many players are on it.”
Mr. Underwood forged a connection with Mr. Williams when they fished for tarpon off the Florida Keys in 1967. Mr. Williams, one of baseball’s greatest players and the last in the major leagues to hit .400, was also an expert fisherman, then in his…
