(Publisher’s note: This article is part of a weekly series featuring journalists from Columbus Dispatch and their work in our community.)
ROB OLLER is a sports columnist for The distribution of Columbuswhere he has been working since July 1995.
During the expedition, he covered the 1995 Cincinnati Reds – The last time they won an eliminatory series – before writing sports features and finally to the columns in 1997. Before that, he was a sports writer for the Springfield News -Sun, where one of his responsibilities predicted the winners of the high school football matches, a duty out of lamentability.
Below, he answers a few questions about his work.
Why did I become a sports writer
Let us bring the title to explain why I became a writer, the sports being the vehicle by which I write. I always liked to write, which, for many, is likely to stick a fork in the eyes. You know, “Give me a mathematics problem and I can solve it. Make me write a test and my world bows. ” I agree that the writing process can be scary, but the gain is worth it. Reclaiming the stories of athletes and chronicling the ups and downs of sporting events is not a bad way to earn a living. Regarding sporting writing, when I taught a course in university journalism, my message to sports fanatics in the room was better as writing even more than you like sport, because you will note many more words than you look at LeBron brand points. Regarding the first, I am over several million.
What I like most about my work
Easy. The variety. One day, I covered a miniature golf tournament and the World Series the next one. I wrote on the lawn races, Nascar, covered six national university football championship games (five involving Ohio Statethe other the title BCS 2006 between the USC and the Texas), seven MastersOne US Open and two Stanley Cup finals. I interviewed Michael Jordan, Jim Brown, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger woodLeBron James (in high school and the NBA), and David Letterman and Paul Newman (during a sports car mid-ohio), to name just a few. I was shouted by Fred couples that are easy to live – difficult to do – and I talked about Bourbons with Ryan Day.
But my most pleasant columns were “ordinary” people who never appeared on ESPN or had millions of Instagram followers. The beloved cross-country coach from the college who died of cancer. THE World War II veteran who also played football for the Buckeyes. The 17-year-old king of Blacktop basketball in the local park. THE Eighty-winging of state wrestler who was wasted from the ALS but kept faith and maintained his dignity despite the prognosis.
Sports arise in all forms and sizes, all speeds and makeup scenarios. And the best part is that everything is real, not the choreographed reality TV.
A story on which I worked that had a lasting impact on me
So many choices, but if he is forced to choose, I would say my gaze on the 1972 Bank of university basketball Between Ohio State and Minnesota. It was far from being a piece of well-being, but that’s what makes it so memorable. That such violence can occur on and off the field is difficult to understand, but this happened in the Minnesota gymnasium on January 25, 1972, when a unilateral melee in the last minute of the game “ended up sending three OSU players to the hospital, damaged several careers and ruined at least the love of a man for training.”
Essentially, a street fight broke out on the basketball court before moving to the stands, where the Minnesota Goldy Gopher mascot struck on the Buckey players.
“When I had come and tried to get up, at least one fan and the gopher got me a cold in the jaw”, “said Osu Mark Wagar striker in 2022.” The next thing I remember, I was on the bench after everything was stopped, and someone gave me a towel to stop bleeding on my eye. … people could have died that day. “”
The column should be written, except for no other reason that we must never forget that sports are supposed to be fun, not deadly.
What is the biggest challenge I face as a journalist?
In today’s world of Fanboy sports media, where too many journalists are doubled like cheerlers for the teams they cover, being objective is considered negative. I grew up at the time of the Watergate, when the journalistic maxim was “if your mother says she loves you, look at it.” Asking difficult questions, now considered disrespectful, is our obligation to readers.
I will not cry about the lack of access to players / coaches, because why complain about something that does not change, but the days when a journalist could tackle a subject of interview without having to show a passport, a birth certificate and proof of supply that the questions will be likely to answer the answer.
What I like to do when I don’t work
I could provide an answer in a word – golf – and end it, but as Columbus is not in Florida in winter, I need to find other things to do. I am not a big reader – “Each page, just more words”, actor and non -reader Nate Bargatze Jokes – But I like to study history. I am a second-class “sneak”, which means that it is more a hobby than an obsession, although my wife can disagree, and nothing beats a good walk in the woods, preferably with a water in the view. Once upon a time, I ran a track for Ohio State, but I got on conditional release from the thing flowing there are several moons. I was a sprinter. The long distance to us is the end of the aisle and the back.
Why journalism counts
Everyone has an opinion, including sports columnists, but it is essential that opinions are safeguarded by facts and experimental knowledge on the ground. As the company is suffering more and more from the most intelligent syndrome, journalism – when it is done correctly – remains the best distiller of the educated information that we have. Journalists do not know everything, which is why most of us tend to be curious, and know that we do not know that everything helps to separate journalism from the pack from social media sites raised in the agenda too often for blood.