BURY ME IN AN OLD PRESS BOX is Fred Russell's way of saying that he hopes the Hereafter will be half as much fun as the life of a sports writer. It is a book about sports and sports writing. There is a thread of autobiography in it, though the book's main fabric is woven of joyful episodes and anecdotes involving many of sports' best-known personalities. There is comedy on nearly every page, supporting the author's thesis that the humorous twists and delightful oddballs contribute as much to the fun of sports as do the generally happy circumstances in which games are played and enjoyed. Mingled with these lighthearted aspects are the eye-filling views that a widely-roving sportswriter has of the whole sports panorama. While Russell's base is Nashville and the Nashville Banner, his beat is the nation. His lack of provincialism is indicated by his regular authorship of the Saturday Evening Post's annual "Pigskin Preview." A change of pace in the frolicsome pattern of the book is Russell's considered judgments on a good many of the sports personalities he has seen and known, and his analysis of each major sport's basis of appeal. He also states the case for sports in general, cleverly and perhaps more convincingly than it has ever been argued before.