by 
As Taylor wrote, “when sport makes instant millionaires out of kids who can hit a ball or a puck with a stick or stuff a leather balloon through a fishnet, what’s not to laugh?”
Famed B.C. sports columnist Jim Taylor died on Monday and it didn’t take long for the accolades to pour in.
Edmonton Sun sports writer Terry Jones referred to Taylor as “skull”.
“Skull was a legend,”Jones wrote on Twitter. “Jim Taylor had the best wit in Canadian sportswriting and loved to tell the story of how he started in the biz reviewing records for the Victoria Times and once wrote a column explaining why one guy would never make it. Elvis Presley.”
Dozens of other industry players, as well as longtime fans, weighed in on social media.
Squire Barnes, of Global TV, referred to him as “one of the greatest sports writers this country has produced.”
“I first met Jim Taylor through a mutual family friend when I was working as the sports editor at a small newspaper in the Kelowna. He encouraged me to apply to The Province sports department and he put in a word for me. I got in and Jim became a great mentor.” Gee said. “I remember him telling me to not take any you know what from a certain old school football coach and to laugh, after all we got to cover sports.”
As a once Huge Sports Fan I more or less grew up reading Jim Taylor and other great B.C. Sports Reporters and Columnists, there were lots of them.
Interestingly enough to me a Non Media Individual I always thought that most of those could have easily reported or written about any subject not just Sports.
They just seemed to be able to “Paint A Picture” with what they wrote or said.
I feel very strongly that Mr. Taylor was one of the very best in any market and I wonder just how influential he might have been if he was working in the New York Market, i feel he may have been a Major Player.
RIP
Jim Taylor and his longtime colleague Jim Kearney were wordsmiths of the first order. I wasn’t a fan of professional sports but I always read the Taylor and Kearney columns.
Mr Taylor is one of the talents where you went out of your way to read his column. If he came on the radio I would often park my truck and listen to his reporting. Someone who deserved our undivided attention.
As a huge sports fan, I awaited every new article or media interview that Jim did as it was Christmas.
He was not only a sports journalist, but more important, a good man, husband & father.
Will sorely miss you Jim…