osterman obit

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SoCalHoops News

OC Register Reporter
Dave Osterman Dead--(Nov. 10, 1999)

We only got to know Dave Osterman briefly, but he could usually be seen on the sidelines at some of the women's and girls' basketball games around Orange County mumbling this or that, and acting sort of like a curmudgeon, even though he was only 48 when he died yesterday of a heart attack. Osterman covered high school sports for the Register for 24 years, and if you wanted to know at this program, or that coach, or who did what in the playoffs about 15 years ago, he was a good source of information. And he was a really nice man.

According to a story in today's edition of the Los Angeles Times, Osterman apparently had a minor heart attack two weeks ago, and drove himself to the hospital at that time. On October 28, he underwent heart bypass surgery at Anaheim Memorial Medical Center. He was apparently transported this week to UCLA Medical Center, where he died about 3 p.m. yesterday from cardiac arrest. Osterman spent most of his career covering the county's high school sports, first at the now-defunct Orange City News, later as sports editor of the La Habra Star-Progress, and then the Register beginning in 1975.

The Orange County Register's obituary carried the following additional information about Dave:

Osterman, an Anaheim resident, covered a variety of sports for the Register, including USC athletics, the Angels and the Dodgers, but he was best known for his coverage of track and field and of high school athletics.

High school athletics long had received high-profile coverage in the Register, but Osterman was a driving force in providing a new in-depth, topic-oriented approach to the coverage, an approach eventually utilized at many other papers nationwide.

Osterman also championed the quest of girls athletics to receive substantial newspaper coverage. Osterman's affable personality and his emphasize-the-positive professional policy made him very popular with coaches, administrators and athletes in Orange County high school sports.

Before joining the Register, Osterman was sports editor of the La Habra-Brea Daily Star-Progress. He attended attended Rancho Alamitos High and Cal State Fullerton.

Funeral services are pending.