Press Box Access: A Sports History Podcast

Wendell Barnhouse recalls the pressure of trying to find the right words in the immediate aftermath of the famous Duke-Kentucky basketball game. The overwhelming magnitude felt on press row at that 1992 NCAA tournament classic still lingers. That’s one of many anecdotes Wendell shares in this episode from his three-plus decades as a national college basketball and football writer. Hear about trave...

This is the second of our two-part conversation with Claire Smith, who broke down barriers for women and journalists of color during her esteemed four decades of covering Major League Baseball. We talked a lot about the pioneering aspect of her career in the first episode, including the time she was thrown out of a team clubhouse. This second episode focuses on some of Claire’s favorite baseball s...

This is the first of a two-part conversation with Claire Smith, a pioneer for women and journalists of color. She discusses breaking barriers while covering baseball for 39 years, including her worst day: When the San Diego Padres physically removed her from their clubhouse during the 1984 National League playoffs. Hear how Steve Garvey helped her in that moment, and how Claire’s love of baseball...

Tim Kurkjian’s love of baseball radiates as he recounts his four decades of covering our National Pastime. The ESPN stalwart takes us to his early days as a newspaper beat reporter when terrible teams couldn’t extinguish his joy. Tim recalls Don Zimmer’s wisdom, Earl Weaver’s unforgettable greeting, and Cal Ripken Jr.’s ferocious competitiveness even off the field.. He puts us there for a Game 7 t...

Jeff Jacobs is a writer who bleeds on the keyboard, and his passion for the craft has never wavered during 46 years in the business. You’ll hear it as Jeff recalls his first big career moment when he unexpectedly became part of the story at a minor league hockey fight. He puts us there in January1980 when the Philadelphia Flyers’ record 35-game undefeated streak ended, and he provides other hockey...

We head down South on this episode with Rick Cleveland, who has been named Mississippi Sportswriter of the Year a record 14 times. He discusses how sports helped to finally end segregation in his home state during his career of nearly 60 years. Rick shares anecdotes about Walter Payton, Brett Favre, and Archie Manning – father of Peyton and Eli – before and after they left Mississippi and became N...

Lenn Robbins is a go-go-go Big Apple guy, but the Brooklyn native pauses on this episode to appreciate the people and places that form a mosaic of memories from his sportswriting career. Emotions bubbling at the ancient Olympic stadium in Greece. Riding with abandon at the Great Wall of China. The pressure felt by his young self in covering the Jets’ final game at Shea Stadium. Vince Dooley burnin...

Bernie Miklasz is synonymous with sports in St. Louis, where he has been writing stories and offering on-air opinions for nearly 40 years. Hear about Tony La Russa calling him at 7 a.m. the morning after a World Series game. Bernie tells us about the engaging personality of Whitey Herzog, the toughness of Kurt Warner, and how Albert Pujols changed on his return to the Cardinals. We’re with Bernie...

Bob Ford likes to say if he has 10 good stories to tell sitting around a bar, Charles Barkley is the subject of 7 or 8 of them. Hear a few of his greatest hits from covering Sir Charles, each told with Bob’s wit and dead-on voice imitation. He also shares other memorable moments from his long, distinguished career in Philadelphia that took him around the world and made his columns must-reads. Only...

Join us on January 18th, 2023 for the 50th episode of Press Box Access with guest Bob Ford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary Schmitt Boyer helped pave the way for other women in sports journalism with her excellence and professionalism. Hear about her experiences as a scribe, and why her own career plans changed after a year in Al McGuire’s circus atmosphere at Marquette in the mid-1970s. She recalls his showmanship, his welcoming personality, and how the Hall of Fame basketball coach set her on a path that took he...

Gary Shelton is someone you want to sit by in the press box or on a media bus. Laughter is sure to follow. Gary takes us back 45 years to when his career began in the long shadow cast by Bear Bryant. He tells us about Don Shula’s brown chair, and how that NFL coaching icon made him a better journalist. Hear about the many personalities of Sam Wyche, how Bobby Bowden was your favorite uncle, what m...

Damon Hack reflects on his 16 years as a sportswriter and how those experiences informed his work in the past decade as a TV journalist at the Golf Channel. Learn protocol lessons taught by the San Francisco 49ers of Steve Young, Jerry Rice and Chris Doleman. Damon takes us to a Super Bowl party with Peyton and Eli Manning, into Adrian Peterson’s home, overseas for the Olympics, and into the masco...

We surf waves, climb mountains, and dive into odorous media mixed zones with Elliott Almond. He has earned a reputation as one of the top Olympic writers and sports investigative reporters during his adventurous career of nearly 50 years. Elliott explains how Edwin Moses led him to break a major story about steroids before the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. He recalls the bunker mentality needed t...

There’s much to unpack from Art Spander’s joyful journey of six decades as a sportswriter. The indefatigable Bay Area legend recalls the rise of young Tiger Woods and offers an intriguing theory. Art recounts covering iconic games such as The Catch, and The Miracle on Ice. He puts us at the Cal-Stanford game when “the band is on the field!” Art shares his love for major sporting events, especially...

Take a trip around the world with Alexander Wolff, one of the most lyrical writers of his era. He shares some gems from chronicling basketball’s international growth during his 36 years at Sports Illustrated. We’re in a car with him, Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra at 3 a.m. We tag along to remote Asia where royalty wasn’t keen on man-to-man D. We hear about Jerry Tarkanian making an offer that A...

David Steele recounts the many twists and turns in his nearly four decades as a sportswriter. He takes us to Maryland in 1986 when the death of Len Bias shook the sports world. Go into the Garden on the night Anthony Mason sat in the upper deck during a Knicks game while he was suspended. Hear how David got the first print interview with Latrell Sprewell after the player choked his coach P.J. Carl...

Bill Koch knows Cincinnati sports as well as any journalist after covering his hometown for more than 40 years. He goes deep into his story vault about Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins, the subject of Bill’s new book. Hear about the time they played each other in basketball, what Huggins was like to cover as a daily beat reporter, and why players have such strong allegiance to their former coach. Oh...

Our 40th guest on Press Box Access is the esteemed Mark Whicker, one of my all-time favorite writers and people in the sports media business. He takes us on a winding road through his career of nearly five decades. We’re in locker rooms with Julius Erving, Darryl Dawkins, Pete Rose and Tug McGraw. There are late nights with a baseball GM known as “The Pope,” fan fights at The Vet, and police horse...

Jerry Tipton knows where all the bones are buried when it comes to University of Kentucky basketball after covering the Wildcats for 41 years. The Hall of Fame writer takes us courtside for the Dream Game with Louisville in 1983 and the legendary Duke game (uh, Laettner) in ‘92. He tells what season stands out more than any other and why, and what he admired about Cawood Ledford as an announcer. H...

Melissa Isaacson takes us into old Chicago Stadium, where smoke rose to the ceiling while Michael Jordan soared into history. She recounts chronicling the 1990s dynasty of the Bulls, with its crazy circus, gracious characters, and poignant moments. Hear about her visit to Birmingham, Ala. when Jordan was playing minor league baseball and mourning his father’s murder. Oh, and there was that time Ph...

Take a spin around the Cleveland sports scene with Bud Shaw, who spent nearly 27 years there as a columnist with a keen and irreverent eye. Bud puts us with the 1997 Indians when they had World Series champagne on ice. Oops. He recounts a confrontation with glowering Albert Belle, which prompted sage advice from ready-for-battle baseball scribe Paul Hoynes. And Bud recalls covering the tragic boat...

Tony Barnhart takes us on a trip through some of his favorite memories covering college football for more than four decades. Mr. College Football tells us about Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Tim Tebow, and other legendary players. He shares insight about coaches Steve Spurrier and Vince Dooley. Tony examines how SEC expansion in the early 1990s led to today’s conference realignment. He recalls the...

Dan Wetzel takes us into the gray netherworld of sports, where some writers aren’t willing to tread. We discuss how his experiences covering college basketball and AAU taught him to look beyond cliches. Hear about characters such as Sonny Vaccaro, Jerry Tarkanian and others who were easily cast into roles for a simple narrative. Dan puts us in the media room when John Chaney threatened to kill Joh...

Few sportswriters can match the lyrical and insightful work of Dave Kindred. His aim has always been to take readers with him, and make them feel what he felt. Dave does this for listeners in this episode as he recalls first meeting Muhammad Ali in 1966, covering 17 of his fights, and agreeing to a strange request from The Greatest in one of their 300-plus interviews. There was the time Kentucky c...