Dan Diamond (born
January 7 1954) is a Canadian publisher, author and editor
specialized in books about sports in general and (ice) hockey in
particular.
His 40 -year involvement with sports began in his
hometown of Winnipeg where he attended junior, senior, minor pro
and international hockey games in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
As a 13 year old, he was a volunteer pressbox assistant at the 1967
Pan-Am Games,
managing to see every sport at least once.
Since 1984, he has
built his company, Dan Diamond and Associates, Inc. (DDA), into a
successful business providing information and publishing services
to clients in sports. For 23 years, he has been the
National
Hockey League’s consulting publisher, producing hockey’s
statistical bible, the annual
NHL Official Guide
& Record Book. His redesign and marketing plan for the
NHL Guide has turned it into the leading statistical annual in
sports. As database and desktop publishing technologies have been
introduced, he has incorporated them into the production of the NHL
Guide & Record Book, resulting in faster turnaround, increased
accuracy, and the publication of numerous new features and
enhancements. In addition, he has built a comprehensive historical
hockey database and has expanded his business by selling data to a
variety of clients including web site operators, trading card
companies, actuaries, salary arbitrators and the hockey operations
departments of NHL clubs.
He is a member of the
Society for
International Hockey Research.
Diamond also edited
Total
NHL, a 928-page reference work released in 2003, and, working
with
Total
Sports Publishing of Kingston, New York,
Total Hockey,
a comprehensive 1,984-page encyclopedia published in October, 1998
and revised in October, 2000. A related book,
Total Stanley
Cup, was released in April 2000 and has been revised
annually.
He was named to
The
Hockey News list of
100 People of Power and
Influence in Hockey for the year 2000.
He recently has
designed, edited and manufactured several important sports books
including
Champions on Ice: 25 Years of the World’s Finest
Figure Skaters (2002);
The Toronto Blue Jays 25th
Anniversary Commemorative Book (2001);
99: My Life In
Pictures (1999), a pictorial autobiography of
Wayne Gretzky with John
Davidson; and
Maple Leaf Gardens: Memories and Dreams
(1999), a deluxe book of Toronto sports and entertainment history
published to mark the closing of the oldest arena in the NHL.
As president of DDA, he has established ongoing series of
children’s books and deluxe gift books about hockey. Offerings
include
Champion Defencemen,
Top Rookies,
Great Goalies and
Amazing Forwards (children’s
series) and
The Spirit of the Game: Exceptional Photographs
from the Hockey Hall of Fame' (Random House, 1995). DDA was
also hired by the New York Rangers to design, edit and produce
final film on a book titled
1994: The Official Commemorative
Book of the New York Rangers Stanley Cup Championship.
He
participated in the planning of the NHL’s 75th anniversary season
(1991-92), and produced two deluxe best-selling books:
The NHL
Stanley Cup Centennial Book (
McLelland & Stewart
1992) and
The Official NHL 75th Anniversary Commemorative
Book (1991 M&S). He also wrote the script for a one-hour
TV documentary entitled
The Stanley Cup, A Century of Magic
Moments broadcast on
ESPN
in the U.S. and
Global
TV in Canada. Other books about the sport produced by Diamond
include
Forever Rivals – Leafs vs. Canadiens
(
Random House
1996) and
Hockey: The Illustrated History (
Doubleday, 1986).
Dan Diamond
worked closely with
Canada Post in the production of a 32-page
booklet and three postage stamps to mark the NHL’s 75th
Anniversary. In addition, he provided research and copywriting in
support of commemoratives issued to celebrate the 25th anniversary
of the 1972 Canada–Russia series as well as an annual set of six
NHL All-Star player stamps first issued in 2000.
His company was
also contracted to edit all display copy that appears in the
internationally acclaimed
Hockey Hall of Fame that opened in
downtown Toronto in June of 1993. He has also provided consulting
publisher’s services to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Philadelphia
Flyers, the Hockey Hall of Fame,
Andrews-McMeel Publishing of Kansas
City, Canadian Controlled Media Communications and the World Cup of
Hockey.
DDA produced detailed media guides packed with
biographical detail and statistics for the
World Cup of
Hockey in 1996 and 2004 as well as an acclaimed guide to NHL
players at the
Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Turin.
Outside of hockey, Diamond has edited three deluxe books about
figure skating. His company has produced the
Toronto Blue Jays
Official Guide annually since 1986 and has also published
guide books on indoor soccer, arena football and gardening.
He
produced an English-language telecast of the Japanese major-league
baseball all-star game for ESPN in 1987. Before working in sports,
he published a newsletter for Canadian tax planners and was
co-founder of two news-and-features periodicals. He also worked as
an on-air radio host and television current affairs producer for
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Winnipeg.
He is active
in community politics in Toronto, and campaigned for the
re-election of Councillor
Joe Mihevc. Diamond also supported former NHL
goaltender, author and hockey executive
Ken Dryden in his campaign for the
leadership of the
Liberal Party of Canada in December
of 2006.
References:
http://www.nhlofficialguide.com/aboutus.asp?AC=Q4P3BE2S4HOOIJ16