Jerry Izenberg earned his first newspaper paycheck in 1951, and he’s still writing as columnist emeritus at The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey. “It has been an active life,” he says. Active? Try one of the most amazing careers in sports journalism. We’re lucky to hear from Jerry in this second of a two-part episode about his 70 years in the business. Part 1 was all about Muhammad Ali. Jerry told tales from covering more of his fights than anyone. In this second episode, we hear how Jerry became a sports columnist, and how he learned from Red Smith and Jimmy Cannon. He tells us about the first Super Bowl and Pete Rozelle. Hear about Mike Tyson crying on Jerry’s chest, and about the magnificent Pele’s message to the crowd after his final soccer match. You’ll laugh about the pigeons at Jerry’s first boxing title match and smile about how a horse from Venezuela captured his heart. And you’ll learn about the fortitude of Larry Doby, the baseball Hall of Famer who broke the American League color barrier and later developed a special relationship with Jerry.

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If you want stories about Muhammad Ali, you go to Jerry Izenberg. We did, and now you’ll hear tales about Ali in this episode that you’ve probably never heard before. Izenberg’s career in sports media is so special we’re presenting a two-part episode with him. He’s 91 and still writing as columnist emeritus at the Newark Star-Ledger in New Jersey, where he was hired in 1951. We’ll cover his entire career in part 2, but this first episode with Izenberg is devoted entirely to his relationship with Ali. Jerry covered more of Ali’s fights than any sportswriter, dating to their first meeting at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He takes us inside the vicious rivalry between Ali and Joe Frazier, including a ringside seat at their brutal Thrilla in Manila. Jerry gives us an inside look at the Rumble in the Jungle when Ali reclaimed his heavyweight championship with an upset of George Foreman in Zaire. He also puts us in Las Vegas on that sad night when Larry Holmes beat up his old friend. Hear this and much more about The Greatest from one of the greatest sportswriters ever. And don’t forget to join us for the upcoming part 2.

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For Bonnie Ford, being a sportswriter is about more than covering games and knowing statistics. She carved out a stellar career by acting on what she felt was a journalistic obligation: Digging into complicated social, cultural and financial topics related to sports. Bonnie did extensive work on doping scandals, especially in cycling, which made her an expert on the Tour de France and its superstar, Lance Armstrong. “I’m grateful that I had such a compelling figure for so much of my career to cover,” she says. Bonnie also discusses how she wrote about issues common to all athletes such as mental health. She shares how Olympic swimmer Allison Schmitt used her platform to talk about depression. She also tells us about covering the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, about profiling Art Modell as he moved the Browns from Cleveland, and what it was like at Wrigley Field after Steve Bartman tried to catch a foul ball.

Bonnie was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford and a Fellow at the University of Maryland Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. She grew up in the New York City area, spent her high school years in Paris, France before earning a bachelor’s degree in 1979 from Oberlin College in Ohio.

Bonnie is married to former Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Bob Ford, who retired in 2020 after 32 years at that paper. Stories from early in her career were written under her maiden name, Bonnie DeSimone.

Follow her on Twitter: @Bonnie_D_Ford

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Details always caught the eye of Timothy Smith during his three decades as a sportswriter. Small moments often revealed bigger things about his subjects. Tim recounts how the discipline of Evander Holyfield fueled the fighter’s confidence and warrior mentality. Oh, and hear what Holyfield shared with Tim about why he knew he’d beat Mike Tyson. Tim tells us about experiencing the wild range of Tyson’s emotions, and what it was like to spend three hours with Muhammad Ali. The Champ levitated. Seriously. Hear what it was like in the Bahamas when Orlando Hernandez came ashore after El Duque fled Cuba. Eggs were involved. And let Tim tell you about the babysitting skills of Sam Wyche . . . and much more.

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Hoops discusses how he fell in love with basketball, the Big 5 in Philadelphia, and that city’s famed arena, The Palestra. He takes us back to the Big East glory days of the 1980s, and we ride with him on the team plane of national champion Villanova after its upset of Georgetown. Hear about Kobe Bryant the teenage phenom, and how Magic and Bird changed college basketball as well as the NBA. Hoops recounts the season he spent with the fabled ’92 Kentucky team that fell in epic fashion to Duke. And he compares John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski. Get a TO, baby, and listen up. This is a basketball treat.

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Bill Livingston’s goal as a writer was to put readers at the scene. Hear about the memorable places he took them, and characters they encountered, during his nearly 50 years of covering sports. Bear witness to the all-time basketball artistry of Julius Erving and LeBron James. Sit courtside as free-spirited Darryl Dawkins, hailing from the planet Lovetron, shatters a backboard. Feel the emotion of Cleveland clinching a long-sought baseball pennant in ‘95. Even take a ride down an Olympic bobsled track. Listen to this and more from “Livy,” as he’s known in the business.

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Bob Kravitz has been fearless in his 36 years of writing about sports. His strong opinions as a columnist have sometimes produced heated reactions from readers and sports figures since the early 1980s. Hear about some of those moments, including his introduction to Bob Knight that you won’t soon forget.

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History seems fragile when Bud Withers ponders his five decades of writing about sports. A free throw here. A turnover there. Tyus Edney going coast to coast. Small moments could have changed reputations and much more if they had gone another way. Withers recalls some of those March Madness memories from his Hall of Fame career at three major newspapers in the Pacific Northwest. We discuss the old-school coaching styles of legends Ralph Miller and Dick Harter, the rise of Gonzaga basketball, and how Ken Griffey Jr. impacted Seattle’s love of baseball. Oh, and there’s also a rental car story because, well, . . . sportswriters.

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Joan Ryan recalls in this episode the harassment that she suffered from pro football players early in her career as one of the first female sportswriters. She tells how that 1985 locker room incident made her determined to prove herself in a male-dominated industry. Ryan did so, and much more, while fearlessly helping to pave the way for other women in sports media.

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Pack your bags and travel back with Mike Lopresti, who globe-trotted for more than three decades as a sports columnist for USA Today and Gannett News Service. He tells us what it was like to slay deadline dragons, to be on a media bus that caught fire, and to hear roars at Augusta as Nicklaus makes an historic charge. He puts us with security guard Richard Jewell – a suspect later cleared – after the ’96 Olympic bombing. Mike puts us with the “Agony of Defeat” ski-jumper, with a wrestler so poor he never slept in a bed, and with speed skater Dan Jansen in heartbreak and later triumph. Hear this and more from a writer who used to spend 200 nights a year on a road. Join him now. It’s free and quite a trip.

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