Seymour Siwoff, the statistics maven who turned the Elias Sports Bureau into the place to go for exact information on teams and athletes for more than a half-century, died Friday. He was 99.
Siwoff owned Elias for more than 70 years before selling it to his grandson in March 2018. He started as an accountant in 1938 and purchased the company in 1952.
Elias was started in 1913 by brothers Al Munro Elias and Walter Bruce Elias and became official statistician of baseball’s National League in 1919. It is now the official statistician for MLB, NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLS and the NBA G-League.
Elias also works with broadcasters and sports networks such as ESPN, MLB Network, NFL Network, Turner Sports, Comcast and NESN.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.