Clubhouse Chatter: What led you to becoming a sports writer?
What our Sports staff has to say while waiting for the games to resume.
I would have liked to have tried playing in the WNBA after I graduated from Northwestern. But the WNBA didn't exist back then. I majored in journalism at Northwestern and I knew that covering sports would be the next best way for me to stay connected to sports after college.
- Patricia Babcock McGraw
Although I was a finance major at Northern Illinois University, two professors raved about my writing style and wondered why I wasn't in the journalism program. After my sophomore year, I told my dad about it. His response: "Well, you know John, there's not much money in newspapers." That was the end of that conversation, but the next semester I applied at the Northern Star, wrote for two years, became the sports editor in 1993 and took a job paying a whopping $15,080 a year in Sterling, Illinois. So, yeah, Dad was right. But that's OK because I get to do what I love, and that's worth everything to me.
- John Dietz
Just enjoyed watching sports events and then putting what I saw into words. I loved playing sports as a youngster, so I figured the next best thing was to write about them. I loved reading about them in the newspaper every day, often clipping stories and stats of my favorite teams and keeping them in files.
- John Leusch
I wanted to do this job since I was old enough to read. Spending a summer working in a steel mill - my job was standing next to a blast furnace sweeping up steel shavings - reinforced that decision.
- Scot Gregor
My Dad. As a sophomore in high school, he noticed I had a flair for writing up my own game reports from basketball games we'd attend together at Burlington Central, and then when we'd take trips to the state basketball tournament in Champaign. He knew I didn't want to be a dairy farmer, so he suggested I pursue writing. And now, 40-plus years later, I'm still doing it, and in his honor.
- John Radtke
I became a sports writer because, as the job title indicates, it paired my greatest passion with (I hope) my top talent.
- Dave Oberhelman