Tom Keegan, a former baseball columnist for the New York Post, has been named sports editor of the Journal-World. He starts today.

He succeeds Chuck Woodling, who held the job for nearly 37 years. Woodling will continue to contribute columns and sports features.

Keegan, 46, has been a regular contributor to ESPN programs and an afternoon radio host on ESPN radio AM-1050 in New York City. He also has worked as a writer for the Baltimore Sun, the Daily Southtown in Chicago, the National Sports Daily and the Orange County (Calif.) Register. He has co-authored two books.

“I’m very pleased Tom Keegan is joining our operation,” said Journal-World Editor Dolph Simons Jr. “He is an excellent columnist and writer, and I am confident he will help the Journal-World develop an even more comprehensive sports package.”

Keegan was lured to Lawrence by the opportunity to cover Big 12 Conference college sports at Kansas University and work on a well-respected newspaper in a progressive, university town.

The Journal-World’s new sports editor was hired after a nationwide search headed by Dave Smith, former sports editor at the Dallas Morning News and The Boston Globe.

“We were fortunate to have someone with Dave Smith’s reputation moving around the country conducting interviews for us early in the hiring process,” Simons said. “And replacing someone with the reputation and abilities of Chuck Woodling is not easy.”

Woodling arrived at the Journal-World as sports editor in 1968 after writing stints at Hutchinson and Lincoln, Neb.

“I thought it was cool to get a sports editing job in a Big 8 town,” Woodling said. “Of course, like everybody else, I didn’t expect to be here 37 years.”

During his tenure, Woodling covered the Kansas City Royals’ 1985 World Series, the Kansas University 1988 national basketball championship and the Jayhawks’ last appearance in the Orange Bowl in 1969.

“I feel blessed that I was able to do a job that is basically a young man’s job for so long,” Woodling said.

Woodling led a team of nationally recognized writers and editors who have won several Associated Press Sports Editors’ national top-10 sports section awards.

“Chuck has represented the company in an exemplary manner and is highly respected by his peers,” Simons said. “He is known for his honesty and accuracy. I’m disappointed he asked for a change of pace but am pleased that he’ll remain an important part of our sports staff as we will continue to benefit from his knowledge and contacts throughout the Big 12 Conference.”

Keegan said he planned to offer “bigger and better” coverage of KU sports, as well as broadened reporting on Lawrence and area high schools.

“Our goals are just to do more of what we’re doing, only do it better – maybe go a little deeper into who the people are behind the games, humanize the athletes a little more,” Keegan said.

He said the sports section should “make people feel like, every game we write about, they’re sitting at the game smelling the hot dogs, and every athlete we write about that they know them a little better.”

Keegan said he hoped to expand the presence of Journal-World writers on 6News and offer more sports chats at LJWorld.com. He also plans to post regularly on the message boards at KUSports.com, offering insight into fan discussions there.

Keegan is a graduate of Marquette University. He has a wife, Angie, and four children: John, a junior at Marquette; Andy, a freshman at Marquette; Jim, a sophomore at Free State High; and Ellen, who will be an eighth-grader.