Chip Mundy, my old sports editor at the now-defunct Albion Evening Recorder, died in a traffic crash Monday near Jackson. He was 67.

I hired Chip in 1983 even though he didn’t have a college degree, and that fact kept him from being hired the year before. He was one of those rare gems who genuinely could boast, “It’s life, not books, that taught me all I’ve learned.”

I took a chance on him 40 years ago, and he didn’t let me down. He stayed on at Albion after I left and then began a long relationship with the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

His sister, Karyl, summed it up best: “Sports, writing and people were his life.”

Mundy, a 1973 Parkside High graduate, started his career in journalism as the sports editor for his high school paper, became the sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980 to 1986. Mundy was the co-author of the 2010 book Michigan Sports Trivia.

Jackson Citizen Patriot editor and publisher Sandy Petykiewicz, said, “His head was full of information about facts and athletes, coaches (and) games that he remembered. He just was a huge source of knowledge.”

He also was closely involved with the bowling community in Jackson and was the winner of the master’s tournament in 1982 and he earned a spot on the Jackson Bowling Hall of Fame.

Besides the thrill of personally covering the Super Bowl for his old pal Tony Dungy, he was able to report on the Albion College football team’s Division III national championship under the leadership of another friend, Pete Schmidt.

Regardless, he shined most while covering local and high school athletics.

Despite having other opportunities, Mundy remained in the Jackson area all his life.

“He wanted to stay and write about the people and young kids there and how they were doing,” Dungy said. “He’d always tell me about people who are coming up, like (Michigan State University defensive back) Khari Willis. He would tell me “Hey, you’re going to love this kid.’”

Indeed, the last time I saw him was when we took in the regional Division 2 basketball game between Jackson and Wayland, which the Wildcats, led by Lacey James, Avery Hudson and Dilon Aten, won. Willis played for Jackson.

Chip bought me a wet burrito in Albion at Lopez Taco House, where the two of us spent every Wednesday for lunch in days of old.

Chip also was able to swing a deal in which Coleen and I would get choice box seats for five games during the Detroit Tigers’ 1984 season and game four of the World Series. We saw Alan Trammell drill two homers in the Tigers’ win.

He was close to finishing a book about Tigers pitcher Denny McLain, who in 1968 became the last major league pitcher to win 30 or more game in a season. He zeroed in on each of McLain’s 31 victories.

Chip Mundy was a success story in which he was a self-made sports journalist. Though I hadn’t seen him much since I left Albion, I will miss him as much as his many friends, colleagues and admirers.