Four months after dropping its weekly column on local sports media, the Sun-Times brought it back this week under a familiar byline.

Dale Bowman, who ordinarily reports and blogs on fishing, hunting and other outdoor sports for the Sun-Times, made his debut Monday as an “on sports media” columnist. He said the current plan was for the column to run every Monday, adding: “It’s something I had hoped to do for a while.”

Bowman’s opener was an appreciation of 25-year Chicago radio veteran Dan McNeil, who now co-hosts middays on CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR-AM (670). Interestingly, his piece didn’t mention McNeil’s side gig as a weekly sports columnist for the Tribune, which he joined last December after 14 months at the Sun-Times.

The Sun-Times has been without regular sports media coverage since last May when Jim O’Donnell’s spirited — if sometimes inscrutable — column mysteriously disappeared without explanation. Though his editor later cited space limitations and a beat reassignment for the move, O’Donnell was laid off only a few weeks later after more than 13 years at the newspaper.

Bowman, who started at the Sun-Times as a prep sports stringer in 1991, has been outdoors columnist for 15 years.