Doug Grow: a MinnPost pioneer who scrutinized the powerful across sports, news and politics

Doug Grow, part of the original crew of MinnPost journalists in 2007, was a South Dakota-bred populist who started in newspapers as a Watertown paperboy. 

Grow, also a sports and news columnist at the Minnesota Star Tribune for 27 years, died of cancer on July 8 at the age of 78. He was known for clean copy, a boisterous laugh and occasional bark. He was skeptical of wealthy ball club owners and executives, particularly amid layoffs, sparred with politicians and stood with family farmers and the working class.

Grow’s editors recall a skilled writer who distilled complex legislative, cultural and societal issues into understandable prose. He was a friendly and helpful mentor and colleague who was elected to head the Star Tribune’s Newspaper Guild in the early 1990s, amid then-good profits. Grow helped the lower-paid workers get the highest-percentage wage increases as well as additional benefits throughout the ranks.

He was self-effacing, witty and grateful for his family and a journalism career that satisfied his curious, sometimes-challenging nature.

Related content: What it was like to work with — or, rather, around — Sid Hartman, by Doug Grow

“I always meant it when I said the MinnPost job was the best job I ever had,” Grow emailed a few weeks before his death to Joel Kramer, co-founder of MinnPost and who was the Star Tribune’s editor and publisher during the 1980s-90s. “Thank you for the opportunities … though I probably could have done without my time on the ‘YMCA’ dance line.”

Grow, Kramer and other MinnPost veterans parodied the Village People and their cornerstone song several times as part of MinnRoast, an annual lampooning of Minnesota politicians and journalists that supported the nonprofit news site. Kramer responded to Grow: “It was a great pleasure for me to have had two bites at the apple with you, both at the Star Tribune and MinnPost. You were a great reporter and writer. And you are a great human being.”

Roger Buoen, an editor at the Star Tribune and later MinnPost, recalled: “Doug was part of the new breed of sportswriters when we hired him from the St. Louis Post Dispatch [in 1979]. He was not like [the Star Tribune’s] Sid Hartman, who was pretty much [always] for the home team and its owners. Doug could be a critic.

“He had a populist quality,” Buoen recalled. “He was the same guy whether you were a union member or senior manager. He would disagree, even yell if that’s how he felt. He would tell you what he thought. No hard feelings. It was just the way he was. He also was a terrific writer.”

Kramer and former Star Tribune Editor Tim McGuire made Grow a general news columnist in 1987 thanks to his ability and broader interests beyond sports. He lasted 20 years. 

At MinnPost, Grow explored the Republican Party’s emergence as the party of Donald Trump in 2016 and the cultural issues that led to sharp political divisions. And Grow criticized DFLers, how the party had lost much of the rural vote, its focus on working-class issues and even the party’s advice to refer to “Asian Carp” as “invasive carp” so as not to offend Asian American voters. Grow’s chuckle irritated former Gov. Jesse Ventura, an irascible independent and former professional wrestler who glared and snarled at reporters whose work irritated him. 

“I remember that Doug was accused of being so liberal,” Buoen recalled. “He also wrote pieces critical of the DFL. Doug just scrutinized people in power. He focused on what was important for real people.” 

Grow wrote of the pain experienced by the working poor confined to expensive credit-cashing stores and “unbanks” and why they couldn’t access the traditional banking system in a column about Minnesota nonprofit Prepare + Prosper, which in 2015 was working on lower-cost consumer banking products with financial partners.

Kramer recalled Grow as talented, empathetic and spirited during 10-plus years of work for MinnPost, including “excellent remembrances” of notable Minnesotans. Those included former Vice President Walter Mondale and Sid Hartman, who died in 2020. Grow wrote of Hartman and his “close personal friends.” 

“Those sports celebrities knew that Sid never was going to report anything negative about them. And Sid knew that as long as he kept up his end of the bargain, [they] would always be available for a quote or appear on one of his sports programs on WCCO Radio. Occasionally … a close personal friend would give Sid a tip that would lead to a big-time scoop. I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch mine isn’t how they teach the practice of journalism. Sid’s relationships with [Gopher] coaches and athletic administrators was often an irritant to beat reporters trying to cover a program more objectively. 

“There was the other Sid, too. The times he would reach out. In my case, one of the members of my family was having serious health problems. ‘I know people at Mayo,’ Sid said. ‘Just let me know.’ It was at times like that I wanted to hug him. I think I understood Sid. He was simply a super fan of all things Minnesota (especially University of Minnesota men’s teams).”

Grow in 2021 eulogized Mondale, the former Minnesota attorney general who rose to the vice presidency and who never lost his interest in people, regardless of standing. Grow recalled that, as a boy, Mondale aspired to be no more than a southern Minnesota county commissioner.

“If you were to have met Walter Mondale walking down the street … you wouldn’t have known he’d been the vice president of the United States. You wouldn’t have known that he’d been the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. You wouldn’t have known he’d been a U.S. senator. That for decades he was a crucial player in monumental events ranging from civil rights to voting rights to women’s rights and on and on. 

“He wore none of this on his sleeve. Unlike so many in political life, he accepted his humanity and fallibility. He even could laugh at himself — and often did. Mondale was a giant of our times but … he didn’t need a suite of rooms. He didn’t need any entourage. He understood he was just a guy who had gone a little farther than he’d dreamed.”

Related content: Walter Mondale: a political giant who didn’t need the trappings of power, by Doug Grow

Scott Gillespie, a former Star Tribune editor who now edits part-time at MinnPost, recalled Grow’s work as “based on solid reporting and a deep understanding of the Twin Cities and Minnesota. They were smart, often provocative and sometimes funny. As managing editor, I came to trust Doug’s view of what was and wasn’t working well in the newsroom. We sometimes disagreed, but always respectfully. I also admired how much Doug cared about his colleagues and mentored less-experienced journalists, as well as those who were struggling.”    

Don Effenberger, who edited Grow for seven years at MinnPost, said in an email: “Just about every story Doug and I discussed came back even stronger than we envisioned because of his diligence and ability to gain the trust of sources on both sides of the political aisle. He had an amazing ability to humanize Minnesota legislators and the legislative process. With his knowledge of labor negotiations, Doug also was able to do groundbreaking coverage of behind-the-scenes activity surrounding the contentious 2012-13 Minnesota Orchestra lockout.

“Also, like many of us lifelong Minnesota Twins fans, he never gave up on the team. He captured the franchise’s highs and lows wonderfully in his 2010 book, ‘We’re Gonna Win, Twins.’”

Neal St. Anthony, a MinnPost contributor, is a former Star Tribune business writer.

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