The Sportin' Life
Penn State University launches a Center for Sports Journalism and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is right behind.
By
Kathryn S. Wenner
Kathryn S. Wenner, a former AJR associate editor, is a copy editor at the Washington Post.
After kicking the idea around for a couple of years, Penn State University's College of Communications establishes a Center for Sports Journalism with an anonymous donation. "It has to do with the fact that Penn State is really a center for sports," says John Curley, former chief of the Gannett Co. and founding editor of USA Today who is a professor and distinguished professional-in-residence at the college. "So many people who have gone here go into sportswriting, broadcasting and sports information work." Curley, 63, and Doug Anderson, 54, dean of the college, will co-direct the center, which will offer a concentration consisting of courses, on-campus work and off-campus internships in print and electronic media, as well as panels, workshops, lectures and two endowed scholarships. Anderson's friend Richard Cole, dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, jokingly says Anderson stole the idea from him--UNC, which has offered sports communication courses for years, is set to launch a similar program in January. ###
|
