Alan Ross is a writer, author, and contributing editor for American Profile. A graduate of Fordham University in New York City, he is a former editor for Professional Team Publications, Athlon Sports Communications, and Walnut Grove Press, as well as the former West region editor for American Profile,the fourth largest weekly magazine in North America. In addition to having written more than 35 national cover stories for American Profile, Ross has contributed annually to Lindy’s Pro Football for the past 12 years. His NASCAR racing column, “The Cool Down Lap,” and pro football commentary, “Over the Ball,” are viewed weekly in more than 50 newspapers in 31 states.

He has authored 32 books, 29 on sports, the last 23 for Cumberland House Publishing (Nashville, TN), including eight titles in the Golden Ages of College Sports series under the nom de plume Wilton Sharpe. His first nine books, which included The Lure of Lighthouses and one co-authored with this wife, Caroline, Love Is Forever, were penned for Walnut Grove Press, beginning in 1997. In 2001, his initial book for Cumberland House, The Yankees Century, was released. His most recent work, Away from the Ball, a look at philanthropy within the NFL, will be issued in August 2008.

Ross has written for The Sporting News’ Special Collectors Editions; the Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, and San Diego Chargers media and fan publications; GAMEDAY and NFL Insider for NFL Properties, the former publications arm of the National Football League; and for NFL.com, the website of the National Football League. His articles have also appeared in Athlon Pro Football, The Coffin Corner, and Athletic Administration. He is a former sports columnist for The Nashville City Paper, and from 1998 through 2000, served as history columnist for Titans Exclusive, the official fan publication of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. In addition, for three years in the late 1990s, Ross penned NASCAR auto racing features for Track Record magazine.

Over the past 14 years, Ross has been heard as a guest sports expert on scores of sports-radio/TV talk shows, including appearances on the Prime Sports Radio Network, Sportfan Radio Network, and the Arizona Cardinals radio network. In the mid-1970s, Ross wrote the column ’Twas a Week When…, a review of the week’s national sports news in rhyme, for The (Nashville) Tennessean.

 

Alan Ross is a 38-year music veteran whose career has spanned the gamut of studio session singer to recording artist to concert artist. In 1999, Ross was recognized as a New Folk finalist at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival, in Kerrville, Texas. Chosen from over 600 applicants nationwide as one of the festival’s 32 final contestants, Ross played two original Celtic compositions for his solo acoustic performance.

He was a featured entertainer at the 2001 Tennessee Highland Games in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and has appeared at the Tullahoma (TN) Celtic Music Festival, the Jonesborough (TN) Celtic Festival, and the Highland Rim Scottish Society’s annual Robert Burns dinner. In addition, Ross has been a featured performer at Jonesborough’s “Music on the Square” Celtic Night and appeared on WETS’ “Roots and Branches” — the Johnson City (TN) National Public Radio affiliate.

In 1966, as a member of the Children of Rain, Ross was signed by Dot Records. The trio released the first-ever single of the famed Sixties’ anthem Get Together, later a classic by The Youngbloods. In 1967, Ross and former wife, Pam, formed Ross Legacy, a five-man pop-rock group signed by Mercury Records, who released their Makes You Wanna Sigh. In 1969, Pam and Alan Ross came to Nashville at the request of Music City mogul Buddy Killen, former Tree Publishing Company owner, who produced the couple and signed Alan as a staff writer for Tree.

Ross had later songwriting stints with Los Angeles-based Storehouse of Songs and Nashville’s Screen Gems/EMI. The duet appeared on over 400 live television shows, and for six years were weekly-featured artists on WSMV’s popular “Noon” Show. In addition, the two were heard for years on WSM-AM radio’s award-winning “Waking Crew.”

Ross’s studio singing career began in New York, in 1967, with a national television spot for Binaca Mouth Spray. A Nashville session singer for the past 32 years, Ross has been heard on over 1,100 radio and television commercials, including spots for Captain D’s Seafood Restaurants, Tennessee Pride Country Sausage, Burger King, Toyota, Pizza Hut, Vietti Foods, Service Merchandise, U.S. Cellular, Mastercraft Boats, Kia, the Future Farmers of America, Democratic presidential campaign theme songs in 1972 and 1992, plus hundreds of single-market financial institutions and car dealerships.Ross recently toured the northeastern United States in a series of coffeehouse and folk club bookings. His annual Golden Acre at Twilight concert was a popular Nashville event for years.

Today Ross, the son of the late Scottish-born fine-arts painter and illustrator Alexander Ross, continues his music appearances, in addition to on-going session work in Nashville studios. He also has a concurrent career as a sports historian, syndicated writer, and author.