Longtime Star sports journalist Fritz Kreisler dies at 84

Fritz Kreisler, who wore many hats in a career at The Star’s sports department that spanned seven decades, died on Sunday in Independence. He was 84.

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.

“I’d received a toy printing press for Christmas,” Kreisler said. “I could print eight lines of type at a time and I just did it on a sheet of paper and it came out weekly. I covered the war in the Clinton Chronicle for 36 issues, until that little press broke down.”

But an enduring journalism career was born.

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.

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Longtime Star sports journalist Fritz Kreisler dies at 84."