Posts Tagged Tony Kornheiser
Hell of a Start: Grantland’s Oral History on The National
Posted by admin in sports, Uncategorized on June 14, 2011
So Bill Simmons and a few pals (such as Chuck Klosterman) have started a venture called Grantland (named in tribute to sportswriter Grantland Rice), a sports and pop culture news site (owned by ESPN).
I have mixed feelings about Simmons, sometimes he just gets too obscure or pompous or something that rubs me the wrong way. But there’s no way you can dislike a website that dedicates one of its first major stories to a history of the short-lived sports newspaper, The National. It’s a piece that has writers Alex French and Howie Kahn interviewing Frank Deford, Dave Kindred, Tony Kornheiser, Ed Hinton and many many other folks. The number of people represented in the piece is staggering. Plus, as an Atlanta native, I am grateful to Hinton for this: “The Atlanta Journal Constitution staff in the mid-’80s was the best sports staff in the country. We were better than the Washington Post. We took Dave Kindred away from theWashington Post. We took Gordon Edes away from the L.A. Times. Roy Johnson from the New York Times. Van McKenzie was getting anybody he wanted.”
But really, my favorite quote comes late in the story, from Deford (a writer/pundit I have admired for years):
“You’d be amazed by the number of people who stop me, bring me papers to autograph. I give a speech and ask for questions afterwards, this is 20 years on, and somebody always asks about The National. People do remember it fondly. The thing they always say is, “I read every issue.” And I think, “Bullshit.” I know you didn’t read every issue because you couldn’t get every issue.”
Read the whole damn thing, I really wish the story about John Feinstein’s cats was true. Even then, it’s a damn funny fictional tale. And there’s the added bonus of Charlie Pierce’s recollection of his time at The National.
I wish Grantland the best of luck, and I really hope that Simmons succeeds in his effort to get Kornheiser to write again.
Kathy Orton on Outside the Limelight
Outside the Limelight
Several weeks back, while listening to a podcast of Tony Kornheiser‘s radio show on ESPN 980 , I heard Kornheiser talk to Washington Post sports reporter Kathy Orton discussing her new book, Outside the Limelight: Basketball in the Ivy League. Two topics like academics and sports intersecting caught my attention immediately. I was fortunate enough to get in contact with Orton and email interview her about the book. Before jumping into the interview, here’s the basic info on the book: “The Ivy League is a place where basketball is neither a pastime nor a profession. Instead, it inspires true passion among players, coaches, and fans who share in its every success and setback. Outside the Limelight is the first book to look inside Ivy League basketball at what makes it unique.”
Tim O’Shea: How different is the recruiting process for players in the Ivy League–do the coaches find themselves needing to focus more upon the academics of their students in terms of finding good recruits?
Kathy Orton: While it is a challenge for Ivy League coaches to find good students with equally good jump shots, I believe the more difficult hurdle for the coaches is finding players with those attributes who also can afford an Ivy League school. It can cost upward of $50,000 a year to attend one of these schools. Because of the costs associated with these schools – remember there is no athletic scholarships in the Ivy League – many middle class kids (and their parents) just can’t justify paying that much money to play basketball when they can go for free to another school. The economic aspects limit the recruiting pool far more than the academic standards.
O’Shea: Given that these Ivy League athletes feel the need to excel as much in the classroom as well much as on the court, what kind of stress level are they under during the season?
Orton: I didn’t fully appreciate the demands on an Ivy League basketball player until I started reporting the book. To begin with, Ivy League schools are extremely competitive, pressure-filled environments for all students. Throw in a Division I sport such as basketball, where you spend close to five hours a day in a gym practicing, watch game film and lifting weights, not to mention the travel to away games (on busses, not charter airplanes), and there’s not a lot of time left over for sleep. I find these kids amazing, and studies have shown because of how they have to excel at time management during college they tend to do better than their peers once they leave school.
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