First off, congratulations on your retirement – what’s next for you?
I’m a grandparent and my grandkids are involved in many different activities – so I expect I’ll be going to a lot of Little League games and taking it easy!
I’m thinking of going to a few Pitt games now as a fan – the Pitt-Notre Dame game for sure – I have to go to that! It’s a different kind of season for Pitt this year – they have to get back to relevance. It’s a big year for the team and Pat Narduzzi.
So many accolades once you announced your retirement – how does it feel being seen in such a great way by your peers?
Oh wow – it’s been overwhelming. I’ve heard from people I hadn’t heard from in a while like Jimmy Morrissey, Kevin Colbert, Andrew Taglianetti and Keith Dambrot. Keith is one of my favorite guys – he’s a good guy.
At Pitt’s practice, Pat Narduzzi presented me with a jersey with the number 53 on it symbolizing how many years I’ve been in the business.
What do you think made you stand out as a sports journalist – what differentiated you in your approach, do you think?
I respected the language. I didn’t try to be too fancy or flowery – I did things the way they were supposed to be done. It may not be a great trait too, but I agonized over the little things, like comma placement and certain phrasing. I go back and change things all of the time. I wrote a farewell piece – the content wasn’t hard since it was about my life, but I kept going back and changing things. It’s good to try and make things perfect but writing is not an easy thing. Someone once described it as slitting your wrists and letting yourself bleed all over the keyboard.
That sounds a lot like how people described Myron Cope.
It was – he was a great writer.
I also wanted to be fair to anyone whose name was under my byline. I didn’t want to write for clicks or to be first – if I wasn’t sure I waited. I never wanted to write about what people say is happening – I wanted to be sure. That’s what any good writer should do.
With so many people entering sports coverage from so many diverse backgrounds now, does that concern you about how talent is entering the industry when many don’t have that formal journalistic background?
I try not to be judgmental – if you feel it’s fulfilling a path then fine. But I can say working for a small outfit and learning the nuts and bolts first helped me. I started off working at smaller papers then became a sports copy editor for the Post-Gazette working under Bob Smizik and Bob Hertzel. They were legends in the business and I learned from them. I laid out pages and edited copy first – doing a lot of checking and re-checking. I called writers many times asking if they were sure this is what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it.
I went to the Tribune-Review in 1993 and was a copy editor there first and worked on the Steelers beat when that started in 1994. I’ve been mostly writing ever since. But I made my bones on the copy desk. I even worked as the high school sports editor at the Tribune-Review for five years. It’s a writing, editing and relationship job.
You’ve covered so many local teams and big moments – I know it’s a tough question given the volume of what you’ve covered, but what stories of yours stand out most to you and why?
I worked on a lot of different things. One that stands out is working with Rob Amen on a story about whether Pitt football would ever crash through the glass ceiling. We interviewed a lot of people like Jackie Sherrill – and a few years later they won the ACC Championship. That was nice to write about it so shortly before they did it. Of course now they’re off a bit but it was a good showing then. Rob was a talented, tough editor.
Once story I wrote that got people mad at me was one I did as a freelancer. I wrote that people going to sporting events shouldn’t boo. It’s rude and crass and not fair to the players. I wouldn’t want to see my grandkids doing it. They booed Phil Jurkovec a few years ago and that upset Pat Narduzzi so much he called Pittsburgh “Boo City”.
Well, I won an award for that story. It’s not an opinion many held on to. I know people who buy tickets have a right to do it but it’s not a good look in my opinion and I was happy it won an award.
In general, does the direction of sports journalism worry you at all? Are you encouraged/discouraged?
There are a lot of good people covering sports in the city. I don’t want to use too broad of a brush but I think most covering it are really good at it.
My problem is those writing content to be first – some of the people with podcasts and blogs that want to get things first on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook just because they think something is happening. We have a rule at the Tribune-Review that you need two sources – a lot don’t do that. I think people feel that if they are wrong no one remembers and if they are right they are heroes.
What individuals did you enjoy covering most and why?
Pat Narduzzi – I knew him since the day he was hired in 2014. His last game as Michigan State’s defensive coordinator was a bowl game in Texas close to Pitt’s bowl game, so I was able to kill two birds with one stone and interviewed him the day before the Pitt game. The way he and I interacted at news conferences and games – it was always in good fun.
I was at the Petersen Events Center for a Pitt basketball game once and tripped and fell and broke a small bone in my wrist and got a brace for it. At the Pitt Football news conference a few days later I raised my hand for a question and Pat saw the brace and asked what happened. I said “We don’t talk about injuries coach!” That brought the house down – that’s what Pat would say whenever a journalist would ask him about injuries.
Keith Dambrot – the former Duquesne basketball coach – he was a good guy and my age – we could relate to each other! He wasn’t afraid to tell us what he thought about questions he was asked and about his team.
In fact the day before he was officially hired a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal called me and told me he was about to become Duquesne’s new coach and gave me Keith’s number. I called Keith that night and asked if him if it was true and he said it was – that he just signed the contract. This was before it was officially announced. Can you imagine if that were Mike Tomlin being asked that the day before it was officially announced? But Keith didn’t care that it was the day before the announcement.
As a mentor later on in your career what was that feeling like for you – and who if anyone helped mentor you?
Ross Brown and Sam Bechtel at the Post-Gazette – I worked under them. Ross was a stickler – they both set good examples.
At Point Park College I had a Journalism professor – Vince LaBarbera – I still remember the things he taught me. Chuck Bradley – my English teacher at Avalon High School too – they all offered me great advice.
As a mentor – I’m not sure if I really mentored people, but I did hear from a Pitt student after I announced my retirement who worked for me years ago. He said he still remembers the things that used to upset me. Like when people write “Pitt Basketball exploded with nine threes in two minutes!” Did they really explode? If so, that must have left a mess on the court! Find another verb that really makes sense. Or when people write that they “Scattered hits all over the field.” Is that what the team did – take hits and place them all over the field? I think it’s very important to use the correct verbiage. It’s lazy writing and it drives me nuts!
Is there enough mentoring happening these days?
Probably not. It probably isn’t as strong as it should be – people have so many things going on with needing to work with social media too – but it’s important to do so. You also have to be in a position to do so. I was responsible for the copy the guys who worked for me did so it was a reflection on me and the paper as well.
These days staffs are smaller – it’s harder to do as much diligence and mentoring like that.
What advice would you give people trying to enter sports journalism today?
Read as much as you can – books, newspapers, the back of cereal boxes – anything you can. Find a columnist or author you like and learn what makes for good reading. We are avid readers in our house – I’ve read every John Grisham book.
I remember when I was young I’d watch Pirates games on TV. I had a manual typewriter and after every game I’d go upstairs and type up a story. I also had a big dictionary and would pick a word every day and write a sentence. I’d do 10 words a night. That just helps you to respect the language, which is so important.