This past week, my famous photographer cousin died. Tony. He was 83.
We knew him as Bob growing up. (He told me he changed his name to Tony because there were so many “Bobs” in his Army basic training unit that it confused him. So, he spontaneously made the change. Since his real full name was Robert Anthony Tomsic, it worked.)
He’s the guy who attended every “Super Bowl” since it’s founding as one of the nation’s premiere sports photographers. He was also an Ohio State attendee, a cub reporter, the leading Cleveland Press newspaper photographer of his era and a stalwart of Sports Illustrated in it prime. His photos, from John F. Kennedy to Jimmy Brown, are iconic.
He was not a cousin we saw often. The reason for this was that he grew up on the “West Side” of Cleveland. That was to hell and gone. My family never traveled that far. Twenty miles away. Oh my.
Anyhow, I got to know Tony better as of late, as I sought to learn more about our family for genealogy purposes. I got to know him best through his cryptic communications, generated about every three months on his archaic, 1980s, 80-character “My-Mail-Station” machine. And, he sent pictures of him and his family. He was a good guy. And a serious fan of Azman sausages. Something we had in common and discussed a lot. (Picture of the Tomsic cousins below is from 1957)
Here is a bit more about him, from a writing by a journalist friend upon his death:
Cleveland photojournalist Tony Tomsic was one of only five journalists
to cover the first 48 Super Bowls… By Brent Larkin – cleveland.com
With a camera in his hands, Tony Tomsic made magic.
Without it, he was something much more – a devoted and loving husband, father and friend, a beloved bear of a man with a gruff exterior that masked a gentle soul.
Tomsic, 84, died Apr. 21 following a brief illness. His lasting gift to us all is a treasure trove of iconic memories that made him one of the nation’s most admired photojournalists.
In a career that spanned more than 60 years, almost half of them with The Cleveland Press, Tomsic was one of only five journalists to cover each of the first 48 Super Bowls.
His photographs graced the cover of 20 issues of Sports Illustrated.
At one time, the NFL photo repository housed about 28,000 of Tomsic’s photographs. Tomsic once estimated he had taken more than 500,000 photographs of NFL games. Some of them hang today in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
Tomsic grew especially close to Jim Brown and Omar Vizquel. Other favorites included Muhammad Ali, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Paul Brown, Hank Aaron, Mike Hargrove, Bobby Knight, Jack Nicklaus, Pete Rose, Art Modell and Ted Williams.
Williams once invited Tomsic to fish with him in Florida. As Williams waded into the water as Tomsic prepared to practice casting from a dock near Williams’ home, Tomsic declined an invitation to join him.
With that, Williams forced the issue, casting his line around Tomsic’s leg and yanking him off the dock. As he entered the water, Tomsic used one of his trademark nouns (unprintable) to describe the man widely believed to be the best hitter of a baseball who ever lived.
“Tony was one of those engaging personalities that made the ballpark come to life,” said Bob DiBiasio, Indians senior vice president of public affairs, after learning of Tomsic’s death. “You looked forward to seeing him every game day. We were the last team in baseball to construct photo pits, ending the freedom of photographers to roam foul territory. Tony liked to remind me he did not appreciate being caged.”
In 1996, Tomsic made news when the Indians’ volatile outfielder Albert Belle hurled baseballs at him during pregame outfield drills as he was taking photographs for a possible Sports Illustrated cover. He later received a settlement from Belle after it was learned Indians pitcher Orel Hershiser would, if subpoenaed, testify on the photographer’s behalf.
As a young boy, Tomsic worked at the family meat market on Hayden Avenue in East Cleveland. After graduating from Cleveland Heights High School in 1953 (he was later inducted into the school’s hall of fame), Tomsic enrolled at Ohio State University, but found himself spending more time taking pictures than attending classes.
In 1955, Tomsic’s impressive body of freelance work earned him at job offer at Louie Seltzer’s Cleveland Press, where he soon became one of the newspaper’s many stars.
Except for a brief stint in active Army duty during the Berlin Crisis of 1961, where he became photographer for the Special Forces units at Fort Bragg, N.C., Tomsic remained at the Press until 1981, when he joined Sports Illustrated.
The longtime Rocky River resident and inductee into the Cleveland Press Club Hall of Fame never really retired. His specialty was sports, but Tomsic’s versatility enabled him to produce award-winning photographs in almost any situation. When the Press needed a front-page photograph, they would send Tomsic to the Cleveland zoo, knowing he would return with the perfect shot.
Tomsic is survived by his wife of 59 years, Betsy, two daughters, Tami Tomsic, a senior project manager for the Seattle Mariners, and Tali Tomsic, an attorney in Boston, and two granddaughters.
John Betchkal, Tomsic’s friend of more than 60 years, contributed to this story
NFL.COM tribute here.
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