“Frank Deford. Dan Jenkins. John Underwood. The list could go on. We thought we were in Valhalla.”
Larry Keith joins Brian to talk about his long career as a reporter, writer, and editor at Sports Illustrated.
Larry, who worked at SI from 1970 to 2004, traces his career path from covering high school football in North Carolina to hosting a radio show with Dean Smith at Chapel Hill to Sports Illustrated. He and Brian talk about why covering high school football is so formative for so many sports journalists.
Larry talks about what it was like to be at Sports Illustrated during the magazine’s legendary glory days. Larry discusses the aura that legendary editor Andre Laguerre had and one of his memorable interactions with him at the old HoHo Bar in New York. He also talks about the process of writing a Sports Illustrated cover story, what it was like to cover the 1979 NCAA finals between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and how he helped hire Rick Reilly at the magazine.
“We had the best writers. We had the best photographers. We had brilliant senior editorial leadership in Andre Laguerre. And it all came together.
Links
John Adams by David McCullough (The Best Thing Larry’s read lately)
America’s Founding Son by Bob Crawford (The Best Thing Brian’s read lately.)
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