SI writer (and husband of Lobo) speaks at Noble

SALISBURY — Sports enthusiasts from around the area gathered on Saturday, Jan. 10, to hear Sports Illustrated (SI) columnist Steve Rushin speak about his life in sports journalism. The talk, which was held at Noble Horizons, was co-sponsored by the Scoville Memorial Library.

Rushin grew up in Bloomington, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis. After receiving a subscription to Sports Illustrated from relatives for Christmas, he decided as a young boy that he wanted to become a sports writer.

Rushin joined the staff at SI immediately following his graduation from Marquette University in 1988.  Three years later, at age 25, he became the youngest senior writer at SI. 

In 25 years at the magazine, Rushin has filed stories from all seven continents and has covered topics such as the World Series, World Cup, Kentucky Derby and Wimbledon. He has eaten his way around every baseball stadium in the country and has also ridden a dozen roller coasters in a single day. 

Rushin has even played the same round of golf in two different countries and with the time difference between the two, accomplished the rare feat of hitting a drive into the next week.

In addition to writing for SI, he has also written for The New York Times, Golf Digest and Time Magazine. He has authored several books, including two bestsellers, “The Pint Man” and “The 34-Ton Bat.”

Rushin was named the 2005 National Sportswriter of the Year, and he has been a four-time finalist for a National Magazine Award. 

In early 2000, he was sent to Washington, D.C., to interview President George W. Bush for a column that would appear in the magazine. As he sat in the waiting room to interview the most powerful man in the country, Rushin suddenly realized that he had forgotten to clean his dress shoes after the last time he wore them — at the Kentucky Derby earlier that year. As he looked down at his shoes, he realized that clay from the historic horse racing track was stuck to the bottom of his shoes and he had tracked the clay across the carpet of the White House. 

Fortunately for him, nobody noticed until he wrote about it in a column some years later.

Rushin, 48, also talked about what it was like being married to University of Connecticut women’s basketball and WNBA star Rebecca Lobo, 41. Despite being relatively famous himself, Rushin said that he has been mistaken for Lobo’s father and is often asked to step out of pictures that fans take of themselves with her.