Now that the college basketball season is over, it's finally time for me to retire. It's been a great career, filled with awesome games but more importantly, great people, not only to write about, but to also work with. I'm done for now, but I've got a book in my future. I'll see you down the road.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Back in the old days of journalism — and I am old enough to remember those days — when you finished writing a story on a typewriter, you ended it with a symbol so they knew you were done.
Dash-thirty-dash looked like this: — 30 —
I've told the story of the early days of my love for sports and writing many times over. When I was 8 years old in the third grade, I would read the local Chicago newspapers for my baseball and college news, and I knew that's what I wanted to do. Big dreams, at a young age.
I wanted to write stories for the local paper when I was in high school. I did that.
I wanted to go to the best journalism school possible for college, and was grateful to have Indiana University in my home state. I covered soccer, wrote columns and covered Bob Knight and Indiana basketball for two-plus years. I did all that.
I wanted to get a job at a top-10 newspaper in the country, and I did that, too. My first job was at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, and I spent nearly 20 years working in that market. I did that, and it became home.
I worked at other great newspapers, too, in Indianapolis and Fort Lauderdale, and I've spent the last dozen years in the digital platform, covering the Big Ten and SEC, with a specific focus on being back in Bloomington to cover Indiana for the last decade or so.
It's been a blast, especially this last ride, because I got connected — and reconnected — with Hoosiers that I've known and written about for nearly all of those 50 years. My time first at Sports Illustrated and now here at Roundtable Sports since August was the perfect way to end my career.
That day has come. It's today.
And I'm ready. This is the end.
I was planning of retiring at the end of the last basketball season, but when this Roundtable opportunity arose, I thought another couple of years would be alright. But I'm going to be 68 years old later this year, and the attraction of 100-hour work weeks and 100-plus nights in hotels just doesn't have the appeal it used to.
I do believe in higher powers, and I do feel like I was being guided to spend another year around Indiana football and basketball. It was so worth it, obviously. That two-month football run through Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon and Miami was as much fun as I've had in my career. I am beyond grateful to be able to write about all that — and have so many wonderful memories.
When I woke up in Miami the morning after the College Football Playoff game in January, I called my bosses and told them that was it for me. I've written four books before, and I really wanted to write another one on this IU football story. There was no way I could do both, so I retired from my daily grind.
They asked me to stay through the end of the college basketball season and cover one last Final Four in Indianapolis, and I was happy to do it. I started my Final Four coverage in 1980 in Indy, and this was the perfect way to book-end my career, 46 years later.
I got another Big Ten title, with Michigan winning on Monday night. It was a great way to end my career.
So, yes, this is it for me today. I'm all finished with the daily grind, and I'm happy about that. I've done it all, seen it all, covered it all.
And this is enough.
I could start thanking thousands of people, but then we'd be here all day. I've had the absolute pure pleasure of working with a lot of great writers, editors, photographers and page designers. Thank you, all of you, for making my career so special. For many of you, our friendships have lasted all of these 50 years. Some of the others, we've just met in the past few years. It's all good.
It's been a lot of fun especially in this past eight years, because it was so terrific to get back to writing again at Indiana. I had been in management for so long, that I missed the storytelling. And what made all of it so great was connecting — and reconnecting — with thousands of new readers, especially in this new-ish social media world we live in.
A big thank you to all of you, too, for being such loyal readers and enjoying — and appreciating — everything I've done across multiple platforms. Many of us have become friends too, and I appreciate that.
When I came back to Bloomington in 2018, one of the things I wanted to do was give back to my university, and my media school. Since I started, I've hired more than a dozen Indiana grads, and I've paid out more than $3 million in salaries to IU writers on my various sites.
That's really made me feel good.
It's been a great run, full of Super Bowls and Final Fours and title games. Full of golf tournaments, baseball games and a lot of college hoops and football.
I have loved it all.
But it's time to be done. I'm ready.
There is a next step, of course, but I can control my time at least. I am writing an Indiana football book — it's called "Googled Him. He Won'' — and it's coming out in July. So, no, I'm not really retiring, but I do have far more control over my life now. I'm looking forward to finishing it — and then selling it. You'll see me all over Indiana in the summer and fall.
I don't know what retirement looks like, but this is a start. I'm excited to play more golf, spend more time with friends — and much more time with my family. My three kids and four grandkids — with a fifth on the way in May — all live within five miles of my home on the west coast of Florida. I want more time with them.
But I have to see what's next. Some people want me to do a podcast, others want me to keep covering sports or at least owning sites. For now, I just don't want to be locked in.
I've already done it all, and that's enough.
For now, this is goodbye. Thanks to all of you for all the support. I'll be around, so keep in touch.
You know where to find me.
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