Woodrow Wilson Paige Jr. (born June 27, 1946)[ Around the Horn, June 26, 2015. On this episode, Paige himself revealed that he was celebrating his 69th birthday the following day, a Saturday.] is a sports columnist for The Gazette,
Early life and education
Paige wrote for the
Whitehaven Press in 1963 while still in high school. He later attended the University of Tennessee and joined Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity in 1964.
Career
After graduating from UT he went on to write for the
Knoxville Journal,
The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, and the
Rocky Mountain News of
Denver.
Paige was honored with an Accomplished Alumni award by University of Tennessee in 2012.
The Denver Post
Paige joined
The Denver Post in 1981.
In 2001, he reported that an employee at
Invesco, which had the naming rights to the
Denver Broncos stadium, Invesco Field at Mile High, claimed that the nickname for the stadium inside the company was "The Diaphragm", after its shape which slightly resembled a contraceptive device with the same name. The CEO of the company threatened Paige and the
Post with legal action over the allegations but had to retract the lawsuit when it was discovered that the story was true.
Around the Horn
Paige was a panelist on
Around the Horn, an ESPN talk show.
He is both the winningest and losingest panelist on the show. Each segment, he displayed a chalkboard with a humorous quote such as "I'm chalk-bored". He had a friendly rivalry with fellow panelist
Jay Mariotti prior to the latter's dismissal from the show; the two currently host a sports podcast titled "Unmuted", which references the mute button employed on
ATH. Paige won the final episode of
ATH on May 23, 2025, bringing his total number of wins to 700.
Cold Pizza
In July 2004, Paige announced that he was taking a one-year leave from the
Post to join ESPN2's then-debuting
Cold Pizza (a daytime-TV "morning show"-style program that was only loosely grounded in sports, aimed also at female viewers). On the show, he was featured in a segment where he bantered with sportswriter
Skip Bayless. Paige continued to contribute to
Around the Horn during this time.
[Paige returned to First Take on May 13, 2009
Video of Paige's Cold Pizza farewell. Accessed December 5, 2006.]
The Gazette
Paige left
The Denver Post in 2016.
He began writing a sports column for
The Gazette the same year.
External links
