Southold’s ‘Fast Eddie’ Schuyler inducted into horse racing hall of fame

Ed “Fast Eddie” Schuyler has covered Muhammad Ali and Secretariat during his storied sportswriting career — but it was the Southold resident’s turn in the spotlight Nov. 7 to celebrate his induction into horse racing hall of fame.

Mr. Schuyler, 90, was selected for the National Museum of Racing’s Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor on Dec. 18, 2024, and toasted by friends, family and colleagues at North Fork Taps and Corks in Southold this past Friday. He was presented with a plaque by Bob Curran, a longtime friend and retired vice president of corporate communications for The Jockey Club.

“I don’t deserve it, but I’m honored,” the good-natured scribe said with a horse balloon tied to his wheelchair and a Guinness in hand. “And it makes it special [for it to be] before all my friends.”

Mr. Schuyler, a native of Bloomsburg, Pa., spent over 40 years covering horse racing and boxing for The Associated Press from 1960, until he retired in 2002.

He began covering the Triple Crown with a sidebar for the 1967 Kentucky Derby. Then, in 1974, he became the lead national racing writer for The Associated Press, a position he held until his retirement. During that time, he covered every single Triple Crown race. 

He also covered the Breeders’ Cup from its inception in 1984 until he retired.

When not at the track, Mr. Schuyler was at ringside covering some of the most famous boxing matches from 1976 through 2000. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010. 

Through the wire service, Schuyler’s work was read nationally in papers and media outlets throughout the United States. The way he reported, though, was what made him so special and earned him the nickname “Fast Eddie.” While other reporters would be typing away on typewriters, he didn’t have one. Instead, he’d be on the phone dictating his stories.

“When he watched a fight or a race, everybody else was typing and had to look down,” his daughter, Vicki Schuyler Trapani, recounted. “But he dictated over the wire service. His stories always went out faster because he could do that. I’ve seen him do it. He could sit there and write a whole story just by saying it.”

Those reports covered a who’s who of the 20th century’s biggest stars, including Triple Crown winners Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed. He went toe-to-toe, figuratively, with Ali and fellow heavyweight champions Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson, among others. He also covered boxing at the Olympics from 1976 through 2000 and reported on fights in 19 countries.

He would write about and talk about boxing so often through his job, that Ms. Schuyler Trapani used to think he and the boxers worked together growing up. 

“I must have been about 4 or 5, the TV was on, and Muhammad Ali was fighting,” she said. “I was watching the fight, and I kept saying, ‘Hit him, daddy! Hit him, daddy!’ Because, in my mind, Dad and Muhammad Ali were boxing together. I knew they weren’t, but I kind of thought they were.”

Mr. Schuyler covered 23 Ali fights, saw Tyson get knocked out in Japan by Buster Douglas and watched Forego come from behind to win the Metropolitan Handicap, among so many other memories.

“It was a pleasure to work with him, and he was a good friend to the sport,” Mr. Curran said. “He was a good friend as well as a treasured colleague. He’s probably going to punch me if I go any longer.”

With the small bar packed just to see him, even at 90 years old, he was the life of the party. 

“To be a writer and cover what I did for more than 40 years was a dream come true,” Mr. Schuyler said. “There are so many great stories and personalities in sports, especially in boxing and horse racing. If you can’t find a good story there, you’re in the wrong business.”