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His name was Merlyn D. Lea, but everybody called him Bud. It was a nickname that stuck to him during a long career of sportswriting.
Nobody called him Merlyn. Not even his twin sister, Marilyn.
He became Bud Lea when he wrote sports for the Daily Cardinal at the University of Wisconsin and the by-line continued with him as sports editor of the Rochester (Minn.) Post Bulletin and the next 44 years as a sports writer, sports editor and sports columnist with the Milwaukee Sentinel.
Merlyn “Bud” Lea died January 20, 2021. He was 92 years old.
He became interested in sports while growing up in Green Bay. His father, Dewey Lea, planted the seed of writing sports when he took him to Green Bay Packers games at old City Stadium.
During his junior year at UW, he ended up in the infirmary with what doctors described as ulcerative colitis, a dreadful bowel disease. The doctors encouraged Bud to pick another vocation because the pressure of writing for a daily paper under deadline pressure with this disease would be difficult.
Bud didn’t take their advice.
He joined the Sentinel sports department in 1953 when the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee. Because he was the new kid on the block, he never had a chance to cover the Braves. Instead, he was handed the Packers’ beat in 1954 when nobody on the expanded sports staff expressed any interest in it.
It didn’t matter to Bud. He was delighted to cover his boyhood idols even though they were going through terrible years.
He survived the losing regimes of Liz Blackbourn and Scooter McLean, and then everything changed with the arrival of Vince Lombardi at Green Bay. From having the worst beat on the paper, he soon had the best.
Bud met his future wife, Filomena Volpintesta, at the Sentinel. She worked in the women’s department and wrote an interior design column for the home pages. It was a time office romances were frowned upon but this one grew despite the fact Filomena worked days and Bud worked nights. She was a Marquette University grad and Bud got his degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison; Filomena was an Italian Catholic and Bud a Norwegian Lutheran. In 1957 they were married and had two sons, Dean, born in 1958 and Perry, born in 1968. Filomena died on July 25, 2014.
Bud was named sports editor of the Sentinel in 1972, succeeding Lloyd Larson. Besides running a metropolitan sports department, he also wrote a column.
He won numerous awards for his writing. He earned best sports story honors by the Milwaukee Press Club in 1964 and 1967. In 1987, he was named Wisconsin sportswriter of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. His sports columns also earned first place awards by United Press International in 1991 and by the Wisconsin Newspaper Assn., in 1992.
The UW School of Journalism and Mass Communications honored Bud for his distinguished service in 1998. He was elected to the Milwaukee Press Club’s Media Hall of Fame in 2004.
Bud’s assignments took him to major sports events, including the Montreal Olympics, World Series, National Basketball Association playoffs, major college bowl games, NCAA Final Fours, Indy 500 races, major golf tournaments, and Muhammad Ali championship fights. He covered 30 Super Bowls, including the first two. He covered all of Vince Lombardi’s games and wrote the book Magnificent Seven: The Championship Games that Built the Lombardi Dynasty.
Bud served as an alternate selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and was a selector for the Packers Hall of Fame. He also was a selector for the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.
He retired in 1994 when the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel merged and continued to write columns for Packers Plus. In his retirement, he helped Johnny Logan form the Milwaukee Braves Historical Association and put out the organization’s Tepee newsletter.
“I guess I never grew up,” Bud would tell his friends. “I loved sports and got to write about sports for a living and I did it during the golden age of newspapers.”
Survived by his sons Dean and Perry (Dawn) Lea, beloved brother-in-law Frank (Dolores Bomrad) Volpintesta, nieces Ann Leiskow, Mara Nugent and Sarah Volpintesta and great-nephew Michael Nugent.
Preceded in death by his beloved wife Filomena and sister Marilyn.
Visitation at FUNERAL HOME Tuesday, February 2 from 11:00 AM until the time of service at 1:00 PM. See www.schmidtandbartelt.com for the livestream link. At rest St. Mary of the Hill Cemetery. A memorial service is planned for later in the year. In lieu of flowers, memorials are appreciated to the Milwaukee Braves Historical Association or the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation.
Click link below to view the Memorial Slideshow Presentation:
Click HERE to view the Memorial slideshow