A member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame, Deford was six times voted National Sportswriter of the Year by the members of that organization, and was twice voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review.

Deford's archives are held by the University of Texas at Austin, where an annual lecture is presented in his name.

He is a graduate of Princeton University and resided in Key West, Florida, with his wife, the former Carol Penner, who had been a fashion model.

Scarlet was adopted as an infant from the Philippines a few months after his daughter Alexandra's death from cystic fibrosis at age 8 on January 19, 1980.

His last novel was the acclaimed Bliss, Remembered, a 1930s romance between a pretty young American and the son of a German diplomat; the story is written from the point of view of the woman.

After writing for Newsweek and Vanity Fair, Deford became a senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated.

The book was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson as Deford, Bonnie Bedelia as his wife Carol, and Gennie James as Alex.