Times certainly have changed since Frank Deford was hired onto the Sports Illustrated writing staff. Deford began writing for SI in 1962, and is a senior contributing writer for the publication today. As he explains in his article Sometimes the Bear Eats You published in the March 29th 2010 Sports Illustrated, at the time he was hired into the world of sports journalism it was dominated by white old men. There was no Internet, no Google, and no light weight laptops. Deford traveled a lot as a budding sports writer. He writes about what it was like when he was trying to recap a game back when stories were typed up on a typewriter,
“Then, after the game you'd go back to your hotel room and type out your piece. Typewriters were loud, especially when everyone else was trying to sleep. Sometimes the poor people in the next room would bang on my wall, or they'd get the front desk to call me. I'd go into the bathroom and turn on the shower to mask the sound of my typing on the floor. This was not conducive to inspired prose.”
But he found a way to finish his stories under these circumstances, and made a name for himself. He went from being “The Kid” to a well-seasoned sports reporter.
Things were different back when Deford had the chance to flourish in the time he called the “Golden Age of Writing About Sports.” There is a high chance that our generation will get to experience a Golden Age such as this, and the two reasons are simple.
1 – More education
Going on to receive a college education is becoming more common for high school students. And even graduate level schools are seeing an increase in applications/graduates. This level of education is producing better writers and journalists equipped with more knowledge and ability to produce good stories.
2 – Bad economy
One good thing from the bad economy will be the better quality work being produced. The decrease in job openings will result in more applicants applying to be hired. The people that are hired will (hopefully) have been picked because they are the best. Therefore, only the best will be published.
These reasons may not be beneficial for an up and coming journalist such as myself, but if my skills prove to be the cream of the crop then I will reap great rewards.
