Why did you get into sportswriting?

Here's guessing that Karen Crouse's story has all of us beat ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/sports/olympics/swimmer-and-young-writer-inspired-each-other-in-1976.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share

 

That is a great story.

Me? It was a condition of my work release.

 

I got into it because I wanted to go games. I knew I'd never be able to afford season tickets or luxury boxes and I loved being where the action was. Broadcast television 30 years ago was nothing like it was today. Many games were not even televised and the production quality was just a fraction of what is considered standard now. Now, I'd rather sit at home than in the stadium.

I really set out to be a broadcaster. I loved hearing myself talk and I loved delivering the important news. Over time, I came to enjoy the interviewing part. Even the research part. Even the challenge of putting together a section as a copy desk editor.

I certainly DID NOT get into in order to sit at a desk at night and take phoners from coaches, nor to listen to parents call me ugly names and accuse me of bias against Little Johnny Bedwetter. I didn't get into it to play politics or for the sake of the salary (plenty of fields where I could have made more money).

I got into it to go to games, to meet interesting people, to travel, to be recongizable in the community. If I'm not achieving that, I might as well close up shop and go home --- which I did.

 

For the money and the hot women, obviously.

Seriously, that's a great story.

 

I got into it because I was offered a job while still in college and it was easier than facing the real world at the age of 22.

 

It was something I always wanted to do. I didn't care about the money all that much. Now....

 

I liked the idea of getting into games for free. Now I like the challenge of telling the stories and putting out a good product.

 

I loved sports, they represented an escape from the real world for me. I did not have the talent or skill to play anything beyond high school or midget hockey. Didn't have the marks or smarts to become a doctor/team trainer or something like an agent. But I could write.

I grew up reading biographies and hockey books by Roy Macgregor, Brian Mcfarlane, Peter Gzowski and others. I became obsessed with hockey history to the point where my favourite player became The tortured soul that was Terry Sawchuck, even though I had never seen him play and being the preintertube days had never seen a highlight pack. I liked the romanticized idea of hanging out with the players and coaches in the smoking cars on trains as they ran between cities, although this being the 80s and 90s the train days were long gone and that reality no longer. This was the fantasy, well one of them, of a teenager.

Everyday I would devour the Edmonton Sun Sports section (my parents paper of choice when I was growing up) reading the likes of terry Jones and Rob tychkowski, and when they picked up the Journal I turned to Cam Cole and Jim Matheson. Then my Dad passed me a copy of Mike Royko's One last time - he grew up in Chicago reading Royko and i had an uncle who was an editor of some sort at the Tribune - and my idea of writing was turned on its side.

The news has always been important to my family and I was always surrounded by it growing up.

As I got older I became far more interested in telling the story. I have held many jobs in my life, and there are many more I could do that would pay me far more, but none provide that instant satisfaction that I get from this job. There are many days when I hate this job. The politics, the pay, the lack of social life, but when I seriously sit down and think about it, there is nothing else I want to do. I'm not sure I should be depressed by that or thrilled I'm doing what I deep down love.

 

My dad always had a newspaper (or two or three) in the house while I was growing up, so I was familiar with the product, and once I discovered that I would have the opportunity to tell people's stories, I was hooked.

I had an English teacher in high school who told me that I should become a writer, so I decided to go to college as a journalism major. I'm just two years into the field, but it's turned out to be a wise decision from an "I enjoy what I do" standpoint.

Obviously getting to go to all of the games for free is also a plus, but if I was just writing straight gamers every day or working the desk/phones every night, I don't know if I would make it.

 

Because I've always loved being around the crowds. I've been able to meet thousands of great people (and a tiny handful of real jerks) and gotten to watch them perform amazing feats between the lines. And the free hot dogs, of course. I'll leave the current state of it all alone, but it's a GREAT feeling any time someone I covered a generation ago remembers me, whether he or she went on to become an elite pro or just a happy spectator.

 

I went into the biz to work for newspapers. Sports just happened to be most fun department to be in.

 

Did anyone actually READ the Karen Crouse column linked in the first post? Holy cow ... what a story. But it almost makes sense as a beginning for someone who has achieved what she has since.