Detroit: Final Four Sports Writing Seminar

DETROIT — Friday morning Detroit highways were jam-packed for miles as college basketball fans flooded toward Ford Field for a chance to watch Michigan State and the other Final Four teams practice.

And Bob Ryan couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to catch up on his reading.

Forget widespread panic about arriving at work on time and angry drivers honking their horns. And don’t give a second thought to the crazed cheers of thousands of Spartan fans stuck in traffic.

All Ryan needed was a pair of reading glasses.

“I almost don’t blame people who stop and read at stoplights,” said Ryan, a Boston Globe sports columnist. “I’m the one person who doesn’t mind traffic jams. I hate being the first person in line; I’d rather be the second.”

Ryan spoke the day before at a sports writing seminar hosted by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association at Detroit Mercy. He might be the face of several sports talk shows on television, but he told aspiring journalists to stick their heads in the books. He emphasized the importance of reading, suggesting a variety of news publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker.

“In order to be a writer, you have to be a dedicated reader,” he said. “You will never be able to compete with those people who are better read than you.”

Reading is a great tool for self-learners who can pick up tips from better writers and mold those ideas into their own writing styles, ESPN Columnist Dana O’Neil said.

O’Neil was another panelist at the sports seminar, along with John Feinstein of The Washington Post, Shannon Shelton of The Detroit Free Press, Steve Carp of The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dick Weiss of The New York Daily News, John Akers of Basketball Times and the moderator, Malcolm Moran, who has written for USA Today.

The panel offered practical advice about entering the news industry to nearly 200 student journalists in Michigan, using stories from their own experiences as the selling point.

Feinstein recalled a time early in his career when persistence paid off. Running back John Riggins had been holding out from the Washington Redskins’ training camp. And after refusing to talk to the media, Feinstein showed up at his doorstep to find some answers.

“‘If you don’t talk to me my boss is going to fire me,’” Feinstein told Riggins. “He said, ‘Come inside and I’ll call your boss and tell him not to fire you.’ But I said that wouldn’t work. So finally he said, ‘Ok, fine,’ and he talked to me.”

When all else fails, O’Neil preached persistence.

“Why, why, why, why, just ask it 47 times in a row until you get a good answer,” she said.

While Feinstein was persistent in breaking through to Riggins, he also used his relationship skills as a reporter to help Riggins open up. He pointed to the significance of developing strong professional relationships with sources.

“Instead of saying, ‘How’s your family?’ you say, ‘How are John and Mike?’ so they know you’re paying attention,” Feinstein said about cultivating sources.

While the panel warned against developing friendships with sources, O’Neil did emphasize the importance of reaching out to them on a personal level.

“At some point, put the notebook down and just chat,” she said. “I was a person. I wasn’t just a reporter.”

Reporters occasionally run into their best stories by simply chatting, Shelton said.

“If you get in very good, meet the parents,” she suggested. “They’ll love to talk about Junior. He has a fascinating story, but you won’t get it from him. But you might get it from his parents. Get close to the people around the athletes. They’ll always know you as the person who did the first story on them.”

Many times the best story isn’t about Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, Feinstein said. It’s about what’s-his-name on the bench.

“Look for the guys that aren’t necessarily the star,” he said. “Sometimes the best stories are about an offensive lineman. The best stories are about people, and people don’t have to be stars to make good stories.”

This article was written as an entry to a scholarship contest. The seminar took place on Thursday, April 2, 2009. The open practices took place on Friday, April 3.