Meet The Sports Writers

[Bill Burgess]

Richard Paul Riley---AKA Rick Riley

Born: February 3, 1958, Boulder, CO
Died: Still alive

sports writer;
Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera, 1981
Denver Post
Los Angeles Times, sports staff, 1983 - 1985
Sports Illustrated, sports writer, 1985 - 2008
ESPN magazine, sports writer, June 1, 2008 - present

Rick Reilly was born February 3, 1958 in Boulder, Colorado and is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for Sports Illustrated, Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008.

Reilly began his career in 1981 with the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado. He spent two years (1983–85) as a football writer on the sports staff of the Los Angeles Times before joining Sports Illustrated in 1985 and contributed a column for Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue. He hosts The Riffs of Reilly on Verizon VCAST and SI.com.

Rick Reilly is now available for corporate event appearances, personal appearances, casino appearances, tradeshow appearances, corporate golf tournaments, sports camps, autograph signings, endorsement deals, television commercials, radio commercials, store grand openings, new product launch campaigns, spokesperson campaigns and speaking appearances. Book Rick Reilly to meet and mingle with your best corporate clients, friends and business associates. Contact us to find out about Rick Reilly booking fees, availability and appearance schedule.

Reilly has become a recognized name in the sportswriting industry because of his human interest pieces in SI. His column on Sports Illustrated's back page was called "The Life of Reilly". He announced in October 2007 that he would leaving Sports Illustrated to work at ESPN. He now writes a weekly column for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and reports live from sporting events for SportsCenter and other programs on the ESPN family of networks.

Reilly officially left SI during the week of November 29, 2007, after 23 years with the magazine.

He co-wrote Leatherheads, a film starring and directed by George Clooney released in April 2008.

Reilly's style is usually humorous, poking fun at the absurdities of athletes, coaches, and almost anyone involved in sports at any level. Reilly does have a serious side, and has written on many subjects, from small town heroes to his own personal life. Reilly has also done features, notably one about a week spent with Marge Schott that ultimately helped lead to her suspension from baseball. He has said in his columns that he doesn't write about sports, but writes "about people IN sports".

[Bill Burgess]

Robert P. Ryan---AKA Bob Ryan

Born: February 21, 1946, Trenton, NJ
Died: Still Alive

Boston sports writer;
Lawrenceville HS, 1960-64
Boston College, graduate, 1968
Boston Globe, Celtics beat writer, 1969 - 1982, 1984 -, sports columnist, 1989 -
Mainly a basketball writer.

Ryan is a columnist for the Boston Globe sports section. He is a regular panelist on ESPN's Sunday morning roundtable, The Sports Reporters. He has been writing for the Globe since the 1970s covering all of the Boston sports team and has been a columnist since 1989. He previously served as a beat writer for the Boston Celtics. He is a graduate of Boston College

Bob's wikipedia page
Robert P. Ryan (born February 21, 1946 in Trenton, New Jersey) is a longtime columnist for the Boston Globe and a sports talk show host on the New England Sports Network. He has been described as a basketball guru and is well known for his coverage of the sport including his famous stories covering the Boston Celtics in the 1970s. After graduating from Boston College, Ryan started as a sports intern for the Globe on the same day as Peter Gammons. He is well known for his stuttering voice and has said of it "I don't like my own voice – in fact I hate it."

Ryan is a history major from Boston College (class of 1968). He went to high school at The Lawrenceville School from 1960 to 1964. He and his wife Elaine have a daughter Jessica, and a son Keith who died in 2008. They are grandparents of triplets. They have been married since 1969. Today Ryan lives in Hingham, Massachusetts. The dedication page in Forty Eight Minutes, one of Ryan's books, says, "To Elaine Ryan: In the next life, maybe you'll get a nine-to-five man who makes seven figures." Ryan has also done humanitarian fundraisers for years to help inner-city teenagers with their educations.

In the fall of 1969 a vacancy on the Globe's Celtics beat was created, and Ryan would take that job. While covering the Celtics Ryan would have a close relationship with the Celtics organization. Ryan would even go out to dinner with the team. Ryan would sit at the press table 8 seats from the Celtics' bench, where colleagues referred to him as the "Commissioner", not unlike Peter Gammons's nickname. Boston Sports Media critic Bruce Allen has said, "his passion is not faked."

One night Hue Hollins, the referee, went to the press table to explain a call to Ryan during a time-out even though he was not obligated to. Another time Ryan wrote a column about the Washington Bullets' Rick Mahorn and how he played dirty under the hoop. When Mahorn was called for a foul Gene Shue, the Bullets' coach, turned around and said, "that's your fault, Bob Ryan, your fault!" Dennis Johnson was often annoyed with Ryan and would go up to the press table and say, "hey, Bob, keep it down. We got a game going on here" when Ryan sideline coached. From Ryan's first column on Larry Bird headlined "Celtics draft Bird for oh what a future" to his last "Larry! Larry! Larry!" Ryan was always a fan of his and eventually co-authored a book with him.

In Tom (Tommy) Heinsohn's book Give 'em the Hook, Heinsohn is negative towards Ryan. Ryan, who began writing for the Globe in Heinsohn's rookie season as a coach, would make friends with the players and vent their feelings towards Heinsohn, their fans, and their teammates, claims Heinsohn. Heinsohn didn't like how he didn't feel in control of his team. Heinsohn believes that Ryan started to "think of himself as another member of the family" and that he even started coaching the team through his beat stories. Heinsohn goes on to talk about Ryan's bloated ego and the fact that he was then thinking of himself as a basketball guru. Heinsohn also says while noting disapproval of Ryan that at the time anyone who lived in Boston and even remotely followed basketball read Bob Ryan. In recent years Ryan has been less critical of Celtics coaches, including Doc Rivers, of whom he said, "I'm a Doc guy."

In 1982 Ryan would hand the torch of the Globe Celtics beat to then-not well known Dan Shaughnessy, and later Jackie MacMullan. He did this in order to go to WCVB for a couple of years. Ryan ended up hating it and moved back to the Celtics beat in 1984 for two more seasons before getting promoted to general sports columnist in 1989.

Ryan would cover 20 NBA finals, 20 Final Fours, 9 World Series, five Super Bowls, the last 7 Olympics and many other events. In recent times Ryan has become less basketball-oriented and more general sports-oriented. He has also written for the Basketball Times. Bob votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

At 60, Ryan wants his retirement from the job to be graceful: "I’m not bitter. I enjoy my job and I still think I do it well, but they are chipping away, chipping away and they are making it far less pleasurable. I want to get out when I feel like getting out. If you stay around too long, there is no way you can dictate your terms", he said. Ryan also asked, "How do you explain to Stephen A. Smith that he has no idea of the game and how much fun it was? He thinks he knows everything, but he will never know what I know about the Celtics.

In recent years, Ryan has become a television personality on ESPN. He is a long time panelist on The Sports Reporters. He has also appeared on Around the Horn and is a frequent guest host on Pardon the Interruption.

Ryan faced a controversy in May 2003 on Sports Final, a local sports talk show airing on WBZ-TV, when he said that Joumana Kidd, the wife of New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd needed someone to "smack" her for taking her son T.J., to NBA playoff night games where they could be taunted. He accused Joumana of being an exhibitionist and using the kid as a prop to get television face time. The show's host, Bob Lobel, tried to get him to retract his statement, but Ryan refused.

The comments struck a cord because in 2001, Joumana Kidd had been the victim of domestic abuse by her husband Jason Kidd. Kidd was arrested and later agreed to undergo domestic violence and anger counseling and pay a fine of $200 in return for not being prosecuted. He also sat out one game with his then team the Phoenix Suns. During the play-offs, Boston fans had taunted Jason with chants of "wifebeater" and by flashing signs with his police mug shots on them.

Although Ryan later apologized, the Globe suspended him and barred him from television for one month. It wasn't harsh enough for many Nets players and coaches, who thought the paper should have fired Ryan.

[Bill Burgess]

John Feinstein

Born: July 28, 1955, NYC
Died: Still Alive

Washington sports writer;
Washington Post, sports writer, 1977 - present
Graduated Duke University (Durham, NC), 1977

John's wikipedia page
John Feinstein is an American sportswriter and commentator. He is a columnist for the Washington Post, an author, is a guest commentator on NPR, and does color commentary for United States Naval Academy (aka "Navy") football games. He is also a frequent contributor to The Tony Kornheiser Show and The Jim Rome Show.

Feinstein was a sports writer for the The Chronicle while enrolled at Duke University, where he graduated in 1977. Feinstein made his name as a prominent author with A Season on the Brink (1987), a book documenting a season with the Indiana University basketball team and controversial coach Bob Knight. Feinstein has now written 23 books, including various best sellers on sports such as basketball, football, and golf. Feinstein's notable titles include the aforementioned A Season on the Brink (1987), A Good Walk Spoiled (1993), A March to Madness (1998), The Punch (2002), and Next Man Up (2005). In 2006, Feinstein branched out into children's literature with a mystery novel for kids titled, Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery.

During a television broadcast of the football game between Navy and Duke University on October 1, 2005, Feinstein blurted an obscenity over-the-air in response to what he perceived to be a bad call on the field. He immediately removed himself from the rest of the broadcast, except to return at the end to apologize on the air. Although he offered his resignation to the Naval Academy, they rejected it because of his contrition and have invited him to continue to participate in future broadcasts.

One of Feinstein's nicknames is "Junior," despite not having the suffix in his name. The name was given by fellow Washington sportswriter and commentator Tony Kornheiser because of the similarities in his temper to John McEnroe. Kornheiser was recently lambasted for joking about Feinstein's weight during his radio program.

Feinstein sometimes fills in as a guest host on The Jim Rome Show. Rome occasionally teases Feinstein about an over-the-phone interview that was interrupted by Feinstein's then-two-year-old daughter who was loudly playing a drumset in the background, forcing him to briefly step away from the phone to quiet her.

Feinstein currently resides in Potomac, MD, and Shelter Island, New York, with his wife, son, and daughter.

Authored:
A Civil War: Army vs. Navy - A Year Inside College Football's Purest Rivalry
A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour
A March to Madness: The View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference
Caddy for Life: The Bruce Edwards Story
Cover-up: Mystery at the Super Bowl
First Coming
Hard Courts
Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four
Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery
Let Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the Game
Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember
Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL
Open: Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black
The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball
The Majors: In Pursuit of Golf's Holy Grail
The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever
A Good Walk: Days And Nights On The PGA Tour
A Season Inside: One Year in College Basketball
A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers
Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series
Forever's Team
Hoop Tales
Moment of Glory: The Year Underdogs Ruled Golf
One on One: Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game
Play Ball: The Life and Troubled Times of Major League Baseball
Running Mates
Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics
Tales from Q School: Inside Golf's Fifth Major
The Best American Sports Writing 1996
The Classic Palmer
The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division 1 Basketball
The Majors in Pursuit of Holy Grail
The Rivalry: Mystery at the Army-Navy Game
Vanishing Act: Mystery at the U.S. Open
Winter Games: A Mystery

[Bill Burgess]

William C. Rhoden

Born: September 2, 1950
Died: Still Alive

Ebony magazine, 1974 - 1978
Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD),
Baltimore Sun, columnist
Sunday Week in Review, October, 1981 - March, 1983
New York Times, sports columnist, March, 1983 - present (June, 2008)
He has conducted the New York Times' sports column, 'The Sports of the Times', since 1990. It is probably the most prestigious sports column in the country, with the Chicago Tribune's "'n the Wake of the News' second.

Bill's wikipedia page
William C. Rhoden (born 1950) is a sports columnist for The New York Times. He has been in his current role since March 1983. Previously, he was a copy editor in the Sunday Week in Review section since October 1981 when he joined the newspaper.

Before joining the Times, Mr. Rhoden spent more than three years with The Baltimore Sun as a columnist. Before that, he was associate editor of Ebony magazine from 1974 to 1978.

William C. Rhoden is also the author of the controversial Forty Million Dollar Slaves, which was published by Crown Publishing in 2006. This book compares the relationship of black athletes to team owners and agents to white plantation owners and slaves of the Antebellum period. It also deals with the complexities of societal implications on black athletes. Howard University has devoted a few students from its spring 2007 semester to further analyze this topic. In 2007, Rhoden's next book Third and a Mile: The Trials and Triumph of the Black Quarterback was published. This book continues the work of Forty Million Dollar Slaves by discussing the struggles that many black quarterbacks have endured by being labeled as "athletic" and not smart enough to play the position. Rhoden is a frequent guest on ESPN's The Sports Reporters.

He attended Morgan State University in Baltimore and while there acted as assistant sports information director.

[Bill Burgess]

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[Bill Burgess]

Woodrow Wilson Paige, Jr.---AKA Woody Paige

Born: June 27, 1946, Memphis, TN
Died: Still Alive

Denver Post

Woody's wikipedia page
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Paige, Jr. (born June 27, 1946 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a sports columnist for The Denver Post, author, and a regular panelist on the ESPN sports-talk program Around the Horn. He was also a co-host of Cold Pizza and its spin-off show 1st and 10 until Nov. 4, 2006, when it was announced that Paige would return to the Post. Paige was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee and is a Baseball Hall of Fame and ESPY Awards voter.

Paige attended the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN) and joined Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity in 1964. After leaving UT, he began his career with the Whitehaven Press in 1963, and went on to write for the Knoxville Journal, The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, and the Rocky Mountain News.

Paige joined the Denver Post in 1981. As of 2007, he writes four columns per week.

A brouhaha occurred in July 2001 over one of Paige's columns. He reported that an employee at Invesco, which had the naming rights to the Denver Broncos stadium, Invesco Field at Mile High, claimed that the nickname for the stadium inside the company was "The Diaphragm," after its shape. The CEO of the company threatened Paige and the Post with legal action over the allegations, but had to retract the lawsuit when it was discovered that the story was true.

As a panelist on Around The Horn, Paige is well-known for his goofy opening jokes, including a blackboard behind him on which he writes intentionally silly comments. He has a friendly, bantering relationship and a friendly rivalry with Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times. The two have appeared in and "won" the most episodes of Around The Horn (in which host Tony Reali subjectively awards or deducts points for the commentaries that strike him as the most intelligent or appealing).

In July 2004, Paige announced that he was taking a one-year leave from the Post to join ESPN2's then-debuting Cold Pizza (originally conceptualized as a daytime-TV "morning show"-style program that was only loosely grounded in sports, intended to attract female viewers alienated by SportsCenter's heavy sports- and "guy"-centered focus). On the show, he was featured in the 1st and 10 segment, where he lightheartedly debated sports writer Skip Bayless on 10 sports-related topics.

In his farewell appearance on Cold Pizza, which aired November 28, 2006, Paige cited declining health in his family as a reason for leaving the show, and New York City, to return to Denver.

On June 28, 2007 it was reported that a former makeup artist for Cold Pizza was suing ESPN, alleging incidents of sexual harassment against host Jay Crawford, and Paige. Both Crawford and Paige have denied these allegations.

[Bill Burgess]

Jason Lee Whitlock

Born: April 27, 1967, Indianapolis, IN
Died: Still Alive

Kansas City sports writer;
Graduated Ball State University (Muncie, IN), 1990 with Degree in Journalism
Kansas City Star

Jason's wikipedia page
Jason Lee Whitlock is a sports writer for The Kansas City Star, Foxsports.com, a former writer for AOL Sports, a former contibutor to ESPN and a former radio personality for WHB and KCSP sports stations in the Kansas City area.

Whitlock was an all-state offensive tackle at Warren Central High School in Warren Township in the eastern part of Indianapolis, and he blocked for quarterback Jeff George, who later became the first overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft. He earned a scholarship to play football at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, lettering as an offensive tackle in 1987 and 1988. He graduated in 1990 with a degree in journalism.

Whitlock previously worked for the Bloomington Herald Times, The Charlotte Observer and the Ann Arbor News. He has also been published in Vibe Magazine and The Sporting News. In the June 2008 issue of Playboy Magazine, Whitlock wrote a 5,000-word column questioning American's incarceration and drug-war policies. Playboy headlined the column "The Black KKK," which provoked Whitlock into writing two columns -- one in the Kansas City Star and another on Foxsports.com -- criticizing Playboy editorial director Chris Napolitano for the misleading and inflammatory headline.

Whitlock was the celebrity spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City. Whitlock had guest-hosted several ESPN shows, including Jim Rome Is Burning, and Pardon the Interruption. He also appeared regularly on ESPN's The Sports Reporters until he was fired from ESPN in September 2006. He is a regular fill-in host on the Jim Rome Radio Show.

The Scripps Howard Foundation awarded Whitlock its National Journalism Award for commentary on March 7, 2008. Whitlock was the first sports writer to win the award and $10,000 prize. His Kansas City Star columns garnered the trophy for their "ability to seamlessly integrate sports commentary with social commentary and to challenge widely held assumptions along the racial divide."

Whitlock announced the departure of his on-line column from ESPN.com's Page 2 in favor of AOL Sports, but initially expected to continue his television work for ESPN. However, after the announcement, Whitlock was interviewed by sports blog The Big Lead, and in that interview, he disparaged two of his ESPN colleagues. Whitlock labeled Mike Lupica "an insecure, mean-spirited busybody", and referred to Robert "Scoop" Jackson as a "clown", saying that "the publishing of [Jackson's] fake ghetto posturing is an insult to black intelligence." Jackson, like Whitlock, is African-American.

After those comments were made public, Whitlock went noticeably absent from any ESPN television work. He soon announced to The Kansas City Star readers in September 2006 that he was fired altogether from ESPN as a result of his remarks; he wrote that the company doesn't tolerate criticism and acted as they saw fit.

Whitlock's first AOL Sports column was published September 29, 2006. Whitlock's first Fox Sports on MSN column was published August 16, 2007.

On April 11, 2007, Jason wrote a column in the Kansas City Star, in which he weighed in on the Don Imus/Rutgers Women's Basketball controversy. He expressed his belief that while Imus's comments were deplorable, the real focus for the black community should be to minimize the negative impact of pop culture elements such as gangsta rap. Jason expressed a mainly negative opinion of the actions taken against Imus by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, saying "It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda." His comments were also featured on several television networks, including CNN, where he was featured alongside Sharpton and accused Jackson and Sharpton of "exploiting these young people, making [...] the problems much bigger than what they should be."

[Bill Burgess]

Michael Raymond Wilbon

Born: November 19, 1958, Chicago, IL
Died: Still Alive

Washington sports writer;
Graduated Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism (Evanston, IL), 1980 (degree in journalism)
Washington Post, sports writer, 1980 -

Mike's wikipedia page
Michael Raymond Wilbon is an American sportswriter and columnist. He is a columnist for The Washington Post, has co-hosted Pardon the Interruption on ESPN since 2001 along with fellow Post scribe Tony Kornheiser, and serves as an analyst for ESPN.

Wilbon began working for The Washington Post in 1980 after summer internships at the newspaper in 1979 and 1980. He covered college sports, Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA before being promoted to full-time columnist in February of 1990. His column in the Post, which deals as much with the culture of sports as the action on the court or field, appears up to four times a week.

In his career, Wilbon has covered 10 different Summer and Winter Olympic Games for The Washington Post, every Super Bowl since 1987, nearly every Final Four since 1982 and each year's NBA Finals since 1987.

After contributing to ESPN's The Sports Reporters and other shows on the cable network, he began co-hosting ESPN's daily Pardon the Interruption, or PTI as it is affectionately known among its fans, with Tony Kornheiser on October 22, 2001. Kornheiser commonly refers to him simply as "Wilbon." As of February 4, 2007, he is also a member of ABC's "NBA Countdown" (with host Stuart Scott and analyst Jon Barry) which is the pre-game show for the network's NBA telecasts.

In addition to his work at The Washington Post, PTI and ESPN, Wilbon appears weekly on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. with WRC Sports Director George Michael, and Pro Football Hall of Famers John Riggins and Sonny Jurgensen on Redskins Report during the football season. He also appears with Michael, USA Today basketball writer David DuPree and Tony Kornheiser on Full Court Press during the basketball season. In 2001 Wilbon was named the top sports columnist by the Society of Professional Journalists.

In recent years, he has become more known as an ESPN personality, and in late 2006, agreed to a multi-year contract extension with ESPN that will give the network priority in conflicts with his newspaper assignments. The first major example of this happened on February 4, 2007 when Wilbon covered a Detroit Pistons-Cleveland Cavaliers game instead of Super Bowl XLI.

Born in the south side of Chicago, Illinois, Wilbon graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep in 1976 and received his journalism degree in 1980 from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He has one brother, Donald, a Chicago-based investment banker, and is the son of Raymond (deceased) and Cleo Wilbon, retired after a long career as a teacher.

Wilbon currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland, but he also has a home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He and his wife, Sheryl, enjoy escaping from the Washington D.C. winters, and he is an avid golfer.

As a native of Chicago, Wilbon generally favors Chicago area teams including the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks and the north-side Chicago Cubs. Wilbon also publicly supported the Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball team during their run to the 2005 NCAA National Championship game, as well as the Chicago White Sox during their 2005 World Series Championship run, despite these teams rivalries with the Northwestern Wildcats and the Chicago Cubs, respectively.

Wilbon is good friends with former NBA star Charles Barkley and has edited and written the introduction for his most recent books, "I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It" and "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?", both of which were New York Times best sellers.

Wilbon revealed on the Dan Patrick Show that he was "the best baseball player in his area at the age of 14." Wilbon rarely discusses his own athletic experiences. Wilbon has also admitted to playing tennis and ice hockey in his youth during PTI.

Wilbon has a cousin, Travon Bellamy, who plays for the University of Illinois football team.

Wilbon suffered a mild heart attack on January 27, 2008. After complaining of chest pains, he was taken to a Scottsdale hospital where doctors performed an angioplasty.

Wilbon's wife Sheryl gave birth to their first child, Matthew Raymond Wilbon, on March 26, 2008. Young Matthew is often referred to as Lilbon by the aforementioned Tony Kornheiser on his radio show.

[Bill Burgess]

Mitchell David Albom

Born: May 23, 1958, Passaic, NJ
Died: Still Alive

Detroit Free Press

Mitch's wikipedia page
Mitchell David Albom is a best-selling author of fiction and non-fiction, a newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press and a radio host and TV commentator.

Albom (the middle of three children) attended Akiba Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia, followed by Brandeis University (Waltham, MA), and later received Master of Journalism and Master of Business Administration degrees from Columbia University (NYC). He began writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer after graduating.

Albom first gained fame as a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press newspaper. Presently, his sports and general-interest columns appear on a sporadic basis.

Each year his sports columns were entered in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest. Albom competed against columnists at newspapers with a circulation above 250,000. All entries are judged anonymously. Preliminary judging is done by more than 90 sports editors, then senior news executives at papers throughout the country make the final awards. The judges change each year. Albom is the most decorated winner in the history of the contest. Between 1985 and 2000, Albom won first place in column writing thirteen times, and between 1991 and 2000 he won first prize in feature story writing seven times.

During a strike at the Detroit Free Press in the mid-1990s that gained considerable national attention, Albom crossed the picket line and returned to work.

Authored:
And The Winner Is
For One More Day
Have a Little Faith
Live Albom: The Best of Detroit Free Press Sports Columnist Mitch Albom
The Fab Five: Basketball Trash Talk the American Dream
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
Double Mitch Albom Boxed Set
Duck Hunter Shoots Angel
For One More Day
Live Albom II
Live Albom III: Gone to the Dogs

[Bill Burgess]

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[Bill Burgess]

Terry M. Pluto

Born: June 12, 1955, Cleveland, OH
Died: Still Alive

Cleveland sports writer;
Graduated Cleveland State University, with degree
Akron Beacon Journal, 1985-2007
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Indians beat writer, September 2, 2007 - present

Terry's wikipedia page
Terry Pluto is an award-winning sportswriter who primarily writes columns for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and formerly for the Akron Beacon Journal about Cleveland sports and religion. He has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and has been named Ohio Sportswriter of the Year eight times. Pluto is also the author of over 20 books.

Pluto is a graduate of Benedictine High School in Cleveland, and received a degree from Cleveland State University.

On August 14, 2007, Pluto announced he was leaving the Beacon Journal to return to the Plain Dealer. He cited the larger circulation and ability to write for his hometown paper as reasons for leaving. Pluto began at the "PD" on September 2, 2007.

Authored:
Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir, 1999
Burying the Curse: How the Indians Became the Best Team in Baseball, 1995
Browns Town 1964: Cleveland Browns and the 1964 Championship
Champions for Life: The Healing Power of a Father's Blessing
Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump
Dealing: The Cleveland Indians' New Ballgame: How a Small-Market Team Reinvented Itself as a Major League Contender
Earl of Baltimore
Everyday Faith
Faith And You
Falling from Grace: Can Pro Basketball Be Saved?
False Start: How The New Browns Were Set Up To Fail
Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association
The View from Pluto: Collected Sportswriting About Northeast Ohio
Weaver on Strategy: The Classic Work on the Art of Managing a Baseball Team
A Baseball Winter: The Off-Season Life of the Summer Game
Bull Session: An Up-Close Look at Michael Jordan and Courtside Stories About the Chicago Bulls
Forty-Eight Minutes: A Night in the Life of the NBA
Joe Tait, It's Been a Real Ball: Stories from a Hall-Of-Fame Sports Broadcasting Career
Lebron James: The Making of an MVP
Sixty-One: The Team, the Record, the Men
Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA, in the Words of the Men Who Played, Coached, and Built Pro Basketball
The Franchise: Lebron James and the Remaking of the Cleveland Cavaliers
The Greatest Summer: The Remarkable Story of Jim Bouton's Comeback to Major League Baseball
Things I've Learned from Watching the Browns
When All the World Was Browns Town: Cleveland's Browns and the Championship Season of '64
Unguarded: My Forty Years Surviving in the NBA, by Lenny Wilkens & Terry Pluto
Tark: College Basketball's Winningest Coach, by Jerry Tarkanian & Terry Pluto

[Bill Burgess]

Peter Paul Finney, Jr.

Born: November 24, 1956, New Orleans, LA
Died: Still Alive

New York Post, 1981 - 1990
New York Daily News, 1990 - 1992

Wife: Doris 'Deedy' Young Finney, born March 14, 1931, died February 18, 2013; Peter married Deedy January 3, 1953.

Peter is executive editor and general manager of the Clarion Herald. He served on the CPA board of directors from 2001-2004 and as treasurer from 2002-2004. He has also served on various CPA committees including the Press Awards Committees.

Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA) sports writer;

[Bill Burgess]

David E. Thigpen

Born: September 9, 1957
Died: Still alive

Social commentator / music critic / sports writer;
Graduated Brown University (Providence, RI), B. A.
Columbia University (Manhattan, NY), M. S.
Chicago Tribune
Time magazine, (NYC-based), 1993 - 2000
Chicago Urban League, 2006 - ?

David E. Thigpen was Vice President for Policy and Research at the Chicago Urban League and principal author of the League’s 2008 economic “Futures” study. He is a former staff correspondent for Time Magazine. From 1993 to 2000 he was a New York-based writer for Time magazine, covering popular music and the arts. He has also written widely on politics, sports and the worldwide significance of Cuban music. His work has also appeared in The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine, and he is a frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune Literary Review. Thigpen holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.S. from Columbia University. He lives in Hyde Park with his wife, Veronica, and their daughter, August.

David lived in NYC from 1997 to 2009.

David Thigpen joined Chicago Urban League in 2006 after a long career as a journalist. He comes to the League from Time Magazine, where he was a staff correspondent based in Chicago and New York City covering a broad variety of subjects – including business, the arts and politics. At Time he contributed several large pieces about urban politics, hip hop culture and public housing.

Thigpen’s writings have also appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune Literary Review, Essence and Rolling Stone magazines. As VP for Policy & Research, he provides the research and data which support the League’s policy positions.

David E. Thigpen was a writer and analyst who is currently Vice President of Policy and Strategic Advancement at the Insight Center in Oakland, California. He also served on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2011 Mayoral Transition team. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone and the Chicago Tribune Literary Review.

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[Bill Burgess]

Mike Downey

Born: August 9, 1951, Chicago Heights, IL
Died: Still Alive

Chicago sports writer;
Chicago Tribune

Mike's wikipedia page
Mike Downey is an American newspaper columnist.

Currently writing the "In the Wake of the News" column for the Chicago Tribune originated by Ring Lardner in 1913, he has also written columns in news, entertainment and sports for the Los Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News.

The Chicago Tribune's 'In The Wake of the News', is arguably, along with the New York Times' 'The Sports of the Times', the most prestigious sports column in the United States.

Downey began a career in journalism at age 15 for a newspaper chain in the south suburbs of Chicago and graduated at 16 from Bloom Township High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois. He has been a police reporter, entertainment writer, editor, critic and columnist, and has covered national political conventions, murder trials and eleven Olympic Games. Among his assignments have been an America's Cup yacht race in Australia, tennis at Wimbledon, British Open golf in Scotland, the Tour de France bicycle race, Stanley Cup hockey finals in Montreal and World Cup soccer in Italy, as well as Pan-American Games competitions in Argentina and Cuba.

He also has been a columnist for The Sporting News and for 15 years wrote a humor column for Inside Sports magazine known as "The Good Doctor." He was a featured sports correspondent for KABC radio in Los Angeles and for WJR radio in Detroit and has often been a panelist on ESPN television's weekly talk show, "The Sports Reporters."

In statewide voting by peers, Downey has been selected National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association sportswriter of the year thirteen times -- in Illinois (twice), Michigan (twice) and California (nine times).

He was honored for his news column by the Los Angeles Press Club in 1998 and won the 1994 Eclipse Award, thoroughbred racing's highest honor. Downey's writing has appeared in a variety of national magazines including GQ, Parade, Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide.

He was included as a character in the Elmore Leonard novel "Be Cool."

Downey resides in Chicago and in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He is married to singer Gail Martin, daughter of the legendary entertainer Dean Martin.

[Bill Burgess]

Levon Douglas Krikorian

Born: August 12, 1943, Fresno, CA
Died: Still Alive

Long Beach sports writer;
Long Beach Press-Telegram;

Mother: maiden name, Valena

-----------------------------------------Doug Krikorian (L), former boxing writer for the now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and Frankie Baltazar.