Celebration for former Miami Herald sports writer Jim Martz this Friday in Plantation

Friends, relatives and colleagues will gather this Friday afternoon for a “Celebration of Life for Jim Martz,” the former longtime Miami Herald sports writer who passed away at age 80 on December 30.

The event will begin at 2 p.m. at Stadium Court of the Frank Veltri Tennis Center, 9101 N.W. 2nd St., Plantation, within the city’s Central Park.

Martz was a Herald sports writer from 1970 to 1991, mostly covering tennis and Miami Hurricanes sports, especially football. He was a Canes historian who literally wrote five books on UM sports. Martz became the editor of CaneSport magazine and later the CaneSport website after leaving the Herald, and continued involved with those until the end.

He also founded Florida Tennis and led that magazine and website until selling just last summer. Online reaction to his passing included an appreciation from Billie Jean King, who wrote that Martz “dedicated his life to telling our stories.” Martz was a past vice president of the U.S. Tennis Writers Association, and a member of the Miami-Dade County Tennis Hall of Fame who wrote several books about that sport, too.

Greg Cote: R.I.P., Jim Martz. A fond tribute to the man who gifted me my Herald career & my future