On the third day of February in 2016, Catawba College welcomed writer Bob Ryan as a guest speaker to several classes throughout the day.  Bob Ryan is a sportswriter who was born in New Jersey during February 1946.  Ryan told the audience that his father influenced his love of sports because they were always going to games when he was growing up.  Ryan explained that they went to so many games because his father was involved with public relations and marketing in the sports field.  Bob Ryan noted that he graduated from Boston College and afterwards went to work for the Boston Globe for forty years.  He also said that he was an ESPN correspondent and had been inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA).  He told the audience that his favorite sport was baseball and that he first visited Catawba College in 1997.  Ryan retired from a long and successful career after the London Olympics in 2012.

Ryan explained that he believes that sportswriting is divided into two separate parts.  The first part, sports, is what came naturally to him because he was raised to appreciate them by his family.  The second part is writing and it was a learned skill that takes time to master according to Ryan who admits that he now loves words, both spoken and written.  Ryan discussed that newspapers really mattered when he first got into the sportswriting field because they acted as a conduit between the fans and the team.  He believes that on-the-job training is important because one is able to learn so much from a realistic standpoint rather than a theoretical one.  He also explained how the NBA’s growing popularity during the 1970’s really shaped his identity in the sportswriting field.  Ryan readily discussed how due to the online shift, print newspapers are dying out and how because of the shift, the older generation tends to think that the writing itself is not as good as it used to be because it is not published in ink.  One reason he thinks is the cause of the shift to online media is because the younger generation does not want to buy a physical paper for various reasons.  One piece of advice from Bob Ryan going forward was “when you have a great team, enjoy it.”  This can be taken at face value for sports players but I believe it can also be extended to include group mates for projects, co-workers, and even just the people around you.