The Roanoke Times | File 1993

John Montgomery always knew he would see three things mentioned in columns written by Bob Teitlebaum in Play by Play magazine.

"Vanderbilt, DirecTV and poker," said Montgomery, the publisher of the Roanoke-based monthly publication.

"He graduated from Vanderbilt. He loved DirecTV. He thought that was the greatest thing. And he always wrote about poker. He thought it qualified as a sport."

Who could argue with a man who spent nearly four decades as a sports writer including a combined 30 years with The Roanoke Times and the now-defunct Roanoke World-News?

Teitlebaum's keyboard went silent late Thursday night when he died at Lewis-Gale Medical Center at age 69.

Teitlebaum was hospitalized Monday with respiratory problems. He lapsed into a semi-conscious state Thursday afternoon and instructed doctors to remove a mask that was helping him breathe, according to his wife, Binki.

Earlier this month when his breathing problems surfaced and he developed severe knee pain, Teitlebaum spent several days earlier this month at Ridgewood Gardens, an assisted living facility in Salem.

In recent years, Teitlebaum had battled a variety of health problems. He had suffered from congestive heart failure and thyroid cancer, and had open heart surgery as a young adult and surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2006.

Teitlebaum was a Nashville native who graduated from Vanderbilt in 1962. He wrote for the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times and had two stints with the Nashville Tennessean before coming to Roanoke in 1970 to work for the afternoon paper, the World-News.

Teitlebaum covered a wide variety of sports for the World-News -- high school, college and professional -- until the paper merged with The Roanoke Times in 1977. During his career Teitlebaum covered World Series and Super Bowls, but devoted the same energy to all his assignments.

"He adjusted to the various things we asked of him with no complaint, and I was worried about that because he was affected more than anyone," former Roanoke Times sports editor Bill Brill said. "He did his job."

Affectionately known as "Teits" to his colleagues and friends, Teitlebaum served as The Roanoke Times high school sports coordinator from 1988 until his retirement in 2000.

Teitlebaum covered high schools exclusively beginning in 1988. He earned the Marshall Johnson Award for excellence in prep sports coverage from the Virginia High School Coaches Association in 1996.

Teitlebaum was the Carolina League baseball beat writer for both Roanoke papers, covering the Salem Rebels, Pirates, Redbirds and Buccaneers. He was inducted into the Salem-Roanoke Valley Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.

"The guy was Mr. Baseball," said former Roanoke Times sports columnist Jack Bogaczyk, now the sports editor at the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily-Mail. "If you wanted to know something about baseball in the Roanoke Valley, he was the guy to go to.

"Cal Berry, the baseball coach at West Virginia State, which is about 10 miles from here ... played in the minors in Salem. When I told him I worked in Roanoke, he said, 'Bob Teitlebaum.' Amazing. Everybody knew Teits."

Teitlebaum also covered Roanoke College basketball, following the Maroons to the 1983 NCAA Division III Final Four in Grand Rapids, Mich.

"I thought a lot of him as a sports writer and a personal friend," former Roanoke College coach Ed Green said. "We used to play a lot of jokes on each other.

"One time, we were down in Knoxville. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and I was in the tub cleaning up to get ready for the game at 7. The National Guard were staying at the same hotel. I hear all this noise at the door and the next thing I know, the National Guard is busting in telling me I'm under arrest. Bob had set it all up."

Following his retirement, Teitlebaum remained a visible part of the Roanoke Valley sports community.

He served as the official scorer for the Salem Avalanche. He compiled football statistics for Salem High School. He kept the official scorebook at high school basketball games across the valley. He took continuing education classes at Roanoke College. He remained active in the Roanoke Valley Sports Club.

Teitlebaum wrote several book reviews for The Roanoke Times following his retirement. His final byline in the newspaper-- a review of John Grisham's Playing for Pizza, appeared Dec. 9, 2007.

In 2000, Teitlebaum began work as a columnist for the Sports Journal, continuing in that role for Play by Play.

"He added credibility," Montgomery said. "He was a 30-year newspaperman in Roanoke. He knew what he was talking about."

Teitlebaum covered some major breaking stories, never missing a deadline.

In 1974, when a promising Salem Pirates prospect named Alfredo Edmead died after an outfield collision during a game at Salem's Municipal Field -- now Kiwanis Field -- Salem general manager Dan Kinder had Teitlebaum break the news to field manager John Lipon.

In 1993, Teitlebaum broke a story that sent shock waves through the Virginia High School League.

He reported that Salem High School was protesting its 1992 state semifinal football loss to Richlands on the basis that then-Richlands coach Dennis Vaught had outfitted his team in illegal cleats. Vaught was suspended from his coaching job for the '93 season.

"He was a consummate professional journalist," VHSL executive director Ken Tilley said. "He was just a giant of high school sports. We didn't always agree, but I respected him."

Teitlebaum was a lifelong gambler, never more so than during his sophomore year in college, when he elected to undergo open heart surgery so risky that Dr. Michael DeBakey -- who pioneered the artificial heart -- deemed it too risky.

Facing surgery for a brain tumor two years ago, he made a promise to his rabbi at Roanoke's Temple Emanuel, Kathy Cohen, that he would study for his bar mitzvah, a Jewish ceremony traditionally for boys at age 13.

At 68, Teitlebaum studied Hebrew for an entire year and read from the Torah in front of friends that included Northside basketball coach Bill Pope and former Salem football coach Willis White.

Teitlebaum never considered himself a great writer. He was a nuts and bolts reporter who doggedly and persistently sought the facts.

"That was Teits," Montgomery said. "Straight. Blunt. If it hurt your feelings, too bad. He was going to do his job."

Maybe Teitlebaum did have nine lives. Last year at the end of a Mississippi River vacation, he and Binki crossed the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. The next day, the bridge collapsed.

Those who knew Teitlebaum knew this:

Sometimes he left you flushed.

He was always straight.

He was one of a kind.