Don Wycliff journey from a boy growing up among his industrious and close knit family in the Jim Crow South to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist began in the East Texas town of Dayton. However, it wound through Ashland, Ky, Denver and Terre Haute, In. before reaching South Bend and the University of Notre Dame. Throughout that journey, Wycliff gained encouragement, love and direction from his parents, grandparents a supportive faith community and a series of mentors who crossed his path at crucial times. By the time, he graduated from Notre Dame in 1969, he appeared to be on the way to a life in academia. However, with the turbulent 1960s coming to an end, an Ivory Tower life didn't feel right, and when Wycliff saw how journalists uncovering wrongdoing at the highest level, he was inspired and compelled to leave the gothic buildings of the University of Chicago and enter the rough and tumble world of journalism. Don Wycliff recounts that journey in his memoir "Before the Byline: A Journalists Roots." Don Wycliff joins me on the next episode of the Many Hats Podcasdt