Christine Brennan, USA Today columnist and author of "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports"
episode
Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast
53 min
3 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
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How did Christine Brennan’s childhood love of sports shape her career?
Hey everyone, welcome to Breaking In with Kevin Fishbane, brought to you by the National Sports Media Association. This is the podcast that tells the origin stories of your favorite sports media personalities. It's episode 68, and my guest is Christine Brennan, sports columnist at USA Today and frequent guest on CNN. She's also the author of the New York Times bestseller on her game, Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports. Brennan won the 2020 Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors for her major contributions to sports journalism. A pioneer in sports writing, Brennan's story begins in Ohio, writing about sports in her diary, listening to minor league baseball on the radio, and attending Toledo football games with her dad.
You'll hear how she got into writing in high school, found her way to Northwestern. Brennan reflects on the internship at her hometown paper where she followed a postman on his final mail route. You'll hear plenty of great welcome to the big leagues moments from Brennan, from going to the Vikings locker room after a preseason game to how she got her first job at the Miami Herald after sending 50 letters out to newspapers to covering the Florida Gators out of college, where Brennan herself got interviewed by TV stations for having that job. Before we get to Brennan, a reminder of recent episodes. Last week was athletic MLB writer Brittany Girolli, and prior to Brit was NSMA National Sports Writer of the Year Ross Dellinger.
Remember to add this podcast on YouTube at youtube.com slash at breaking in with Kevin Fishbank. All right, here's how Christine Brennan broke in. Christine Brennan, USA Today columnist, author of the New York Times bestseller on her game, Kaylin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports. And a fellow Medill alum, Christine. It is awesome and an honor to have you on the program. So thanks for joining me.
Oh Kevin, I I'm I'm thrilled. Uh right back at you. Congrats on your career and everything you're doing coming just a few short years. I think thirty if I do the math from when I graduated to when you graduated, but that's okay. Um I I I um I'm thrilled to still be doing it at at this stage and longevity matters. But uh you have just been like a rocket ship. Congrats on everything. Thrilled to be with you on your podcast.
Well, thank you so much. And I will start with a diary entry of yours from before you're even at Northwestern, because I was reading in your book, you had this diary entry from January first, nineteen sixty nine. So I'll read it for our listeners. This was your first diary entry. You wrote, Woke up late after watching after staying up last night to wait for the new year. After lunch, went to the sports arena to ice skate. After that, watched the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl. In the Rose Bowl, Ohio State won over US. USC twenty seven sixteen in the orange bowl, Penn State won over Kansas fifteen fourteen. And you wrote, I sounded like a stringer for the Associated Press. So I I bring that up, Christine, because when reading about your childhood, like a lot of my guests have similar, you know, I watch sports with my parents.
I learned to read by reading the box scores, all those things. I don't think I've ever had anybody who was as consumed with it the way uh you were. So uh in in all tell us all the different ways that sports just kind of took over the childhood of of Christine Brennan.
Yeah, well you know, Kevin, it was that was um as you said, it was uh January first, sixty nine. First diary. I still have it about twenty feet away from here in a cabinet with all others. And it was it was girly, you know, it had flowers and it had the lock. The lock is long since broken and I never locked them because I know, with my siblings we all were I think good about not doing that kind of stuff and breaking into our desk each other's desks or something. And so I was ten and uh yeah, my mom uh was kind of more th the impetus for that than my dad, although my dad was my sports buddy and as I've said many times, uh my own personal title nine, uh, teaching me how to throw the ball properly, you know, all this all the stuff that boys were learning.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Christine Brennan’s childhood love of sports shape her career?
0:10–7:19
2
What role did the diary entry from January 1 1969 play in her early writing?
7:19–14:09
3
How did her experiences at Northwestern and the Toledo Blade internship influence her path to sports journalism?
14:09–21:04
4
What challenges and breakthroughs did she face as the first female sports writer at the Miami Herald?
21:04–28:01
5
How did entering the Vikings locker room become her ‘welcome to the big leagues’ moment?
28:01–34:19
6
What were the pivotal moments covering the Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes that defined her reporting style?
34:19–40:14
7
What advice does Christine give to young journalists breaking into the industry today?
40:14–47:00
8
How does she view the evolution of women’s sports coverage from her early career to now?
47:00–53:47
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast
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Ross Dellenger, Yahoo senior college football reporter
Sean McDonough, ESPN play-by-play broadcaster