Tag Archives: newspapers

My first job: Bob Ryan covers Celtics for Boston Globe at 23: Intern class of ’68 included Gammons

Posted on by

Bob Ryan is hanging it up as a regular columnist for the Boston Globe after the Olympics. It’s been a great run. Ryan has been a distinctive voice in the Northeast for more than three decades.

I remember a long night at Runyon’s in New York with Ryan, Malcolm Moran of the New York Times and Jackie MacMullan of the Boston Globe. Moran had a train to catch to get back home, but thanks to Ryan, the conversation was so lively, Moran kept saying, “I’ll catch the next one.” Not sure if he ever made it home.

In honor of Ryan’s last columns for the Globe, it seems fitting to look back at how it all started. I had a chance to talk to him a few years back for a project about sportswriters.

It turns out Ryan didn’t have to wait long to get the plum assignment that eventually defined his career.

Here’s Ryan:

*********

My real beginning is that I always was interested in the idea of the newspaper being the validation of a sporting event.

I grew up in Trenton, N.J. It was a very good sports town. It was a big high school basketball town. My father was involved in sports. He was a promoter and publicity man-type. He was an assistant AD at Villanova. My whole orientation was sports.

I liked to read too. If we went to a high school basketball game, I didn’t think it was validated until I read about it the next day. It’s just the way my mind worked. From (a young age) I was interested in newspapers.

I started as a summer intern at the Boston Globe on June 10, 1968. There was this other guy named Peter Gammons. That’s when we met.

As an intern, I did sidebar stories at the ballpark, feature stories on off beat stuff. Boston had a soccer team in the North American Soccer League. Dick Walsh was the new commissioner. He had been a longtime baseball executive. He comes to Boston on a publicity tour and is available for an interview. Who do they send? The lowest man on the totem pole. Me. He laughed about it. He said, “This is what I’ve become.”

(Eventually), they brought me back as an office boy with a verbal promise that I would get the next opening. I got married in May, ’69. I was making the princely sum of $72.50 per week. My wife was teaching school.

By October, the sports editor came up to me and said, ‘You probably thought I forgot all about you.’ The guy who had been covering the Celtics left. That created an opening.

The next night on a Friday, I was covering the home opener for the Celtics against the Cincinnati Royals and their new head coach, Bob Cousy. It was the first year of the post-Russell era. Tom Heinsohn was a rookie coach, and I was the rookie beat man.

Despite all their titles, the Celtics still were on the backburner in Boston compared to Bruins. I did mostly home games. We didn’t travel much.

I was 23. I was exactly the same age as the rookies and not that much younger than the key guys. They took me under their wing. It was a tremendous thrill.

There was a whole different set of circumstances when it came to access. We had almost unlimited access. You could come in and go to practice. You could hang out and sit in the locker room and shoot the breeze for an hour. You’d hang out after practice. You might even go have lunch with them.

I knew how to write, I thought, but I needed to learn the NBA. Nobody taught me a thing about how to cover a team. You have to figure that out yourself.

Heinsohn thought it was to his benefit to fill my head with what he wanted me to know, and it was my benefit to listen. I spent many hours hanging out with him. I got a crash course in learning the NBA.

I know during the first year all kinds of stuff went on. Until this day I have no idea what happened. Later on, I would know automatically, but back then I didn’t have a clue.

I became the beat man in 69-70. It was the first of seven years on the beat. I wound up doing it three different times.

Tommy Boswell once told me when you’re talking about spreading your wings, never be shy about having an expertise in something.

I got two titles out of that run and three in the Bird years. I’ve done many things, but people always identify me with the Celtics. I’m proud of that.

 

 

 

 

Times still tough, but APSE president says mood improved for nation’s sports sections

Posted on by

I heard more than my share of gallows humor when I attended the Associated Press Sports Editors annual meeting last month in Chicago.

I listened to a group of editors discussing their coverage for the upcoming Olympics in London. When somebody mentioned the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, an editor for a major paper said, “I just hope we’re around in 2014.”

It wasn’t the only time I heard a crack of that nature.

Indeed, it isn’t easy to be a sports editor these days. For many, it is a matter of survival with painfully dwindling resources. Even today, there is news about Sports Illustrated making staff cuts.

Yet despite the adversity, an APSE survey reported: Sports editors “remain confident in the future of the industry by a 2-to-1 margin as they cope with new technology, changing reader habits, and a sluggish economy.”

To get sense of the mood of the association, I did a Q/A with new APSE president Gerry Ahern, director of news content for the USA Today Sports Media Group.

More than a few times at APSE, I heard editors say, “If we’re still around….” in an upcoming year. Gallows humor, to be sure. What is your sense of the mood of sports editors these days?

I think the mood of many sports editors in 2012 is far more positive than it has been in recent years. Some papers and websites are actually replenishing staff and other resources. Opportunities, at least in some markets, seem to be growing. Certainly, there are exceptions. When you see what’s happening in markets such as New Orleans you have to scratch your head. When you see media companies embroiled in bankruptcy you naturally and legitimately worry about what’s next. Clearly, the days of the one-trick, print pony are long gone.

Reporters and editors have to have quick-twitch, digital skills and focus on delivering original content distinct to their markets. Advertising support on all platforms has to pick up. The folks who are doing that are seeing gains. The thirst for sports news and information isn’t dwindling, it’s expanding. But readers/users want the information delivered in the fashion they want, when they want it. Our ability to serve their needs, on tablets, mobile devices, etc. will ultimately determine who succeeds.

How difficult have the last few years been for editors, especially the aspect of having to let go of staff?

It’s been quite difficult. It’s never easy to have to let go of staffers, especially those who have contributed to past successes. But again those journalists who have adapted to the digital-first landscape and demands given to us by those who consume media are the folks who give us all the best chance to thrive and survive in an ultra-competitive era.

What are the biggest challenges going forward for sports sections?

One huge challenge is to maintain proper professional and ethical standards in a time where the news cycle is 24-7 and the field we compete against is not all playing by the same rules. There have been incidents, such as with Joe Paterno’s death, where some outlets let their zeal to be first outweigh taking proper steps to vet and verify information and sourcing. That should never happen. Not in print, not online, not with social media. Our credibility is at stake and if we lose that, we are sunk.

Given the rapid rise of websites at newspapers, what is the sports editors’ emphasis on these days? Print or Internet?

I think the best sports editors maintain focus on both. You can break incremental news on your site, provide some instant reaction and analysis, then add depth, perspective and exquisite storytelling in print and in later incarnations online.

Just how relevant is the newspaper sports section these days, given all the various platforms these days?

The relevance is in the brand, not necessarily the print product vs. the digital product. Who can readers/users count on to be credible, to be accurate, to be timely, to be fair? The outlets who continue to breaks news, provide informed commentary and analysis, investigate and uncover malfeasance have bright futures. I’m convinced of that.