GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Former longtime newspaper editor Irwin Smallwood, a North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame member who covered the founding of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953, has died.

The News and Record of Greensboro reported Smallwood died Saturday at age 98.

Smallwood had a 42-year journalism career before retiring in 1989, starting at the then-Greensboro Daily News as a 16-year-old copy boy. He later became a reporter, sports editor and managing editor at the newspaper.

Smallwood was on hand when officials from schools in the Southern Conference met at the Sedgefield Country Club and decided to leave to form the ACC.

“He was the only media person there the night before (schools) officially left the Southern Conference, and they got together in a room and decided to leave,” said Brian Morrison, former ACC media relations director.

Smallwood became the unofficial historian of Greensboro-area sports, a member of the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame and the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame. He also was a former president of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 1994.

“His knowledge and love of the ACC, Greensboro and the state of North Carolina were unmatched and will be forever missed,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. “Irwin will always be part of the fabric of the ACC and our hearts are with his entire family.”