Patricia Babcock McGraw

Staff Writer
  • Phone(847) 427-4454
  • Emailpbabcock@dailyherald.com

Patricia Babcock McGraw grew up playing sports and wanted to stay connected to that world once her playing days were over. While playing basketball at Northwestern in the early 1990s, she majored in journalism at the Medill School of Journalism with the hope of one day writing about sports.

In 1997, she was hired as a sports writer and columnist by the Daily Herald.

Babcock McGraw covers high school sports as well as women's sports for the Daily Herald. Her weekly Women's Watch column, which focuses on college and professional women's sports, is unparalleled in the United States.

In 2002, Babcock McGraw won a Peter Lisagor Award for a series on the 30th anniversary of Title IX. For years, she has been a voter for The Associated Press women's college basketball Top 25 weekly poll, the John Wooden Award for the best player in women's college basketball and the Nancy Lieberman Award for the best point guard in women's college basketball.

Since 2007, she has extended her reach to television as a color analyst for women's college basketball games on the Big Ten Network and for Chicago Sky (WNBA) games on Comcast.

Prior to joining the Daily Herald, Babcock McGraw worked as a sports writer at Pioneer Press in the suburbs and at the Shreveport Times in Louisiana.

A native of Indiana, Babcock McGraw was named Indiana's Miss Basketball as a senior in high school at Culver Academy before earning all-Big Ten academic and athletic accolades at Northwestern.

Babcock McGraw lives in the north suburbs with her husband Mike, who covers the Chicago Bulls for the Daily Herald, and their two children.

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DePaul's Quigley hoping to connect with Sky

May 10 2013 | 5:16 pm - Women's Watch talks with former DePaul star Allie Quigley, who is at training camp and trying to make the Chicago Sky roster as a three-point specialist. Patricia Babcock McGraw has an update on Quigley's pro career, which includes stops with four...

Stevenson tests well against Warren

May 08 2013 | 11:17 pm - A good idea is always close at hand with this group. The Stevenson volleyball team is full of bright thinkers. There are multiple future Ivy Leaguers on the roster, headed for schools such as Princeton and Cornell. MIT and Northwestern are also...

Grayslake Central takes yoga challenge, with very positive results

May 09 2013 | 10:30 pm - Here's an announcement that isn't often blared over a high school's loudspeaker: "And for the baseball team yoga is canceled for today." But at Grayslake Central, yoga for the baseball team was in fact canceled one...

Sky's newest star ready for the pressure

May 09 2013 | 6:16 pm - At Delaware, Elena Delle Donne had the weight of the program on her shoulders from Day One. Expectations for her were through the roof for every game. With training camp under way for the Chicago Sky, Delle Donne finds herself in a familiar spot...

Carmel's act travels well

May 03 2013 | 6:31 pm - A soggy outfield has kept Carmel's baseball team on the road for much of this spring, but it's working out fine for the Corsairs.

Loyola slugger Andresen ready for a new chapter

May 03 2013 | 8:24 pm - Loyola University softball slugger Brooke Andresen, a Downers Grove South grad who is leaving her name all over the school record books, talks with Patricia Babcock McGraw about her collegiate career in this week's Women's Watch column.

The joke’s on Lake Zurich’s joltin’ Jones

May 02 2013 | 8:26 pm - It was all getting a bit too routine, which seems funny to say about watching home run baseballs being driven over the outfield fence with authority. But after so many of them, Anthony Drago and his Lake Zurich teammates were ready to change up...

Bullpen stint helps Carmel's Ryan in the long run

May 02 2013 | 5:35 pm - Matt Ryan can throw curve balls, and so can life. Earlier this spring, life threw Ryan a curve ball that he definitely wasn't expecting. Ryan entered his senior year at Carmel expecting to be the baseball team's ace. He won 6 games on the mound last...

Mundelein speaks up, steps up

May 01 2013 | 11:20 pm - It's normal for a hitter to show some emotion as he rounds third base on his home run, just like Luke Adams did on Wednesday, fists pumping and vocal cords straining with cheers of joy. It's also normal for teammates to envelope a home run hitter in...

Why Griner’s game matters more than anything else

Apr 26 2013 | 6:09 pm - In light of all the talk about Brittney Griner, the No. 1 WNBA draft pick, being gay, Patricia Babcock McGraw offers her response to the news reports, and one that she believes most fans have as well.

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