Frank Deford's "Over Time" memoir

Versatile...we probably agree that Scott Price and Gary Smith today do what Deford once did for SI ... how is it a waste of students' time to study the craftmanship that produced the work of all 3? ... for that purpose, I'd use Tallest Midget before the memoir....

 

Although his delivery, per usual, is brusque and irritating, I somewhat agree with his viewpoint.

(In other words, he could have made all those good points without being a dick about it.)

 

Not a commentary on Joe, but in my experience, the opposite is true. Great professionals are often the worst teachers*. They frequently fail to appreciate how much skill and effort good teaching requires. The best professors spend hours each year tinkering their lectures to better communicate with students, even if they've lectured on the same topic for years. Maybe, though, this is less true with journalists since some of the skills--such as breaking down a complex topic to a general audience--apply to both professions.

* Although students don't always feel that way. Many love hearing "war stories" because they're more interesting than a real lecture, even though they don't serve any educational value.

 

It would be interesting to see what the thoughts would have been if Mr. Lapointe was not posting under his own name.

Not what I said.

I should have stopped reading after the first sentence. Knew what the second would say.

FanHouse is NOT the classroom.

This does not necessarily follow. Have you read his posts in this thread?

Hit the nail on the head. This is all true.

This post doesn't exactly add anything to the dialogue other than attempts at personal barbs. Not sure how this unnecessary rudeness is called for, but I'm sure the Mods will have something to say about it.

Now . . . did anyone want to argue what I actually said? Or is there just gonna be more chorus of "Well, I really like his journalism!"

 

I'd agree Smith is doing a lot of what Deford once did for Sports Illustrated. He may be the only American sports writer living that life these days. Even Price writes nightly columns from tennis tournaments for the website. The craftsmanship of their work is one thing, though. The path they took ... that path doesn't exist anymore and requires a degree of talent that, if you have a student on that level, he or she needs individual mentoring anyway. A student that good is too far ahead of his or her classmates.

 

What you call "nasty" (for multiple obvious reasons), I call "pointed." I explained myself very thoroughly and never name-called or besmirched Mr. Lapointe. I explained why he may wish to rethink his methods, and I was very clear. In the future, I'll include a line about how wonderful his previous work was, if that will soften the blow.

You've been in the classroom? I'll note here that like most, you said nothing about any of the points I made. It's much more important to assume an individual obviously MUST know what he's doing, simply because of who they are and what they used to do.

 

All these comments are very interesting and I've already got some good additional ideas. Along with assigning Deford's memoirs, I'll assign at least a couple of the pieces he wrote and get them from the Vault.

The entire purpose of the class is not to wax nostalgic about the past and SI's glory days. Last time I taught the class, I brought in A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin to talk about running pictures of Brett Favre's penis. (Is that contemporary enough?)

I hope to give students a broad perspective and stress that covering sports sometimes means covering crime (Penn State), labor (lockouts), law (name the arrested athlete here) and medicine (concussions). Sports are our national theatre. Athletes and coaches are our avatars.

They will cover live events, write profiles of people now in the sports journalism industry and they will do "takeouts" as term projects, building them the semester. I also try a few lighter things. Two years ago, during the week of Notre Dame-Army football, we edited Grantland Rice's "Four Horsemen" story. Another day, we read and discussed William Faulkner's coverage of a hockey game for Sports Illustrated. (You can look it up).

I appreciate any tips from those of you who've taught your own sports writing classes or maybe took them in college. Teaching is always a work in progress; and it's fun.

 

See, that class sounds interesting. You led with the worst part, the memoir from the old sports writer. Teach your kids not to lead with the boring stuff.

 

That's not what it sounded like earlier, but OK.

I stand by what I said, that requiring five books is a good way to lose students.

As for having Daulerio speak . . . not sure if it's "contemporary enough!!!!" (though I did appreciate the bit of snot behind that question), but it's certainly an interesting story. Is it representative of "today's sports journalism"? Is it representative of the type of thing any of your students will end up having to do?

The "profiles of someone in the sports industry" aspect is a common assignment, and something I never perceived to have a high value except perhaps as a "networking" opportunity.

Other than that, there's probably an idea of two in your above graph worth considering stealing.

 

yeah, well i was just thinking if i were to teach a class on sports journalism that i'd include dave effing kindred in the required reading ... and look what the dog drags in.

we don't see nearly enough of you around here any longer, DK.

ok, enough man love from TP for the day.