(ATR) Karl Heinz Huba, founder of Olympic newsletter Sport Intern, is remembered for innovation and his knowledge of the Olympics. He died August 11 of natural causes in Lorsch, Germany.
Huba launched the newsletter in 1968 after two decades of work in Germany as a journalist. As a student, he got his start writing for Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for U.S. military. He then moved on to United Press International, where he was sports editor. He left UPI for Die Welt. Sport Intern would soon follow.
Sport Intern eventually became a must-read for those needing to stay abreast of the politics at the IOC and the international sports federations. Editor Huba was close to IOC presidents Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jacques Rogge and Thomas Bach.
"Karl-Heinz Huba followed the Olympic Movement for decades and was an insider for many sports-related topics," Bach says in comments to Alain Lunzenfichter, who contributed to this story..
"Sport Intern, which was founded by him in 1968, was a trendsetter and the first media outlet of its kind. Mr. Huba's view on the world of sport was very well respected and will be missed. I will always remember him as a great friend of sport," Bach continued.
Lunzenfichter, who retired as Olympics writer for L’Equipe in 2013, also knew Huba well.
"He had an encyclopedicknowledge of the international sports world and a great memory of events and dates. Huba was very well respected in the global world of sports media and the Olympic Movement," says Lunzenfichter.
He reveals that Huba wanted him to take over Sport Intern when he retired in 2013.
"I was not ready for a new adventure," Lunzenfichter says. Huba left Sport Intern in 2018.
Current editorAshish Sharma tells ATR that Huba continued in an advisory capacity until his death.
"Sport Intern will continue in the same factual and inquisitive style and tone as a legacy to it’s founder and driving force for so long," says Sharma.
The newsletter, easily recognizable for the orange paper on which it was once printed, was mailed around the globe.Subscriptions cost hundreds of dollars per year and each issue carried a caveat that subscription renewal was automatic, unless notified three months in advance.
Sport Intern was indeed the first of the specialist newsletters that chronicle the inside workings of the IOC, this publication, Around the Rings among them. Aimed at the same readership, the two publications initially competed in print. ATR was an early adopter of digital distribution, which Sport Intern eventually followed.
On a personal note, it was always amusing through the years to experience the confusion that sometimes arose between ATR and Sport Intern. It was more than reporting on the same niche industry in competing specialized publications. It was who was doing the reporting. Was it Hula at ATR or Huba at Sport Intern?
Huba was editor of the book A History of World Football. In his hometown of Lorsch he founded the Olympic Club of Starkenburg. With IOC member Prince Albert II of Monaco as the patron, the club organized cultural and sport-related events that have included IOC presidents and IOC members.
Reported by Ed Hula and Alain Lunzenfichter.
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