Mark Whicker retired on Feb. 1 after a newspaper career of 48 years. For the past 35 years he was the sports columnist at the Orange County (CA) Register. He also wrote columns for the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Bulletin, and covered the 76ers and Phillies for the Bulletin. He worked at the Dallas Times-Herald and the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, his hometown paper. A 1973 graduate of the University of North Carolina, he was twice placed on the top 10 list of the Associated Press Sports Editors, was named Sportswriter of the Year twice in North Carolina and once in Pennsylvania, and is a member of the US Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. He is also a recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for boxing commentary. He lives in Long Beach with his wife Robyn, and has a son, Philip, at the University of Colorado.