Cameras and televisions lights surrounded Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon, Maury Povich and four other journalists sitting in front of a crowded Richard Eaton Broadcast Theater, as an audience of nearly 100 attendees eagerly waited to hear them speak.
But none of last night’s panelists had traveled to College Park to talk about themselves.
In the “Remembering Shirley Povich” discussion — which also included Turner sports reporter David Aldridge, Washington Post Vice President Ben Bradlee and Chairman of the Board Donald Graham, daughter Lynn Povich and son David Povich — panelists regaled the attendees with stories, memories and lessons learned from long-time columnist Shirley Povich and discussed the importance and legacy of the former industry-giant.
“A lot of students and a lot of our faculty have no idea who he was or what he meant to sports journalism,” moderator George Solomon said. “That’s why we wanted to put a panel together to share those anecdotes.”
The namesake of the newly formed Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, Povich wrote more than 10,000 columns for The Washington Post for 75 years before his death in 1998. His career crossed paths with almost every facet of sports — from baseball greats Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Jr. to boxing legends Jack Dempsey and Muhammad Ali.
“Sports history was in him and through him,” Aldridge said. “Everything that happened, every way that sports became what it is today in the American consciousness, he was a witness to it.”
A believer in the value of the written word, Shirley Povich was often the last one in the press box after all the other stadium lights had gone out, ensuring his column was perfect before it was finished. He phoned in his articles to The Post desk, dictating his work rather than sending in a written copy.
“He was such a graceful writer. He cared so much about grace, about words,” Lynn Povich said. “He hated being edited. He had a certain rhythm in his writing, and he didn’t want anyone changing his rhythm by changing any words.”
Shirley Povich also made his mark on younger writers as an intrepid reporter, placing as much emphasis on asking the right questions as he did on writing the story, Wilbon said.
“How to talk to athletes, how to talk to players, how to go into a locker room and get what you need after a difficult loss,” said Wilbon, who worked with Povich at The Post. “How do you make someone comfortable enough to talk to you when they’re angry or terrified or under the biggest pressure? That might be the biggest [lesson].”
Student journalists said they can learn from those lessons.
“Someone made the comment that he was always right, and even if it wasn’t popular he was always on the right side of things, even if he was in the minority,” junior journalism major Scott Kornberg said. “Lessons like that and lessons of how he was able to go into the locker room and teach young journalists the ropes and still be professional — you really pick up on stuff even though he’s not living. Simply from his stories, for any future journalists, it can go a long way toward helping them.”
In a time where journalism has blossomed into a multi-platform industry rife with broadcast media, blogging and social media, Solomon — who is also the center’s director and a journalism professor — said he believes now more than ever that it’s vital for students to learn about the lasting impact Shirley Povich had on sports writing.
“What he was like as a writer, what he was like as a person, his ethics, how he looked at journalism, how he looked at sports — that’s why it’s important,” Solomon said. “It’s important for students to understand that good writing and good reporting mean a lot, and it’s still important even though a lot of the mediums have changed.”
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