CARBONDALE, Ill. – Illinois native Dave Kindred, one of America’s premier sportswriters, will discuss his memoir during a virtual conversation with Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute on Monday, Feb. 12.
Kindred will join John Shaw, institute director, to talk about Kindred’s 2023 book, “My Home Team: A Sportswriter’s Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketball.”
The virtual discussion via Zoom is at 10 a.m. The online program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. The conversation is part of the institute’s Illinois Authors series of discussions with the writers who bring the Prairie State to life. Visit paulsimoninstitute.org/events to register.
“Dave Kindred’s book is a celebration of sports, community and small-town Illinois,” Shaw said, adding that Kindred will also discuss “the thrill – and terror – of writing about major sporting events under tight and even impossible deadlines.
“Dave Kindred grew up in Illinois, attended college in this state and began his remarkable career as a sportswriter in Bloomington. After a legendary career in which he earned three of the most prestigious honors in sportswriting and became a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame, Dave moved back to Illinois to retire. But he became captivated by and chronicled the girls high school basketball team in Morton, Illinois. You will not be able to put down his poignant book.”
A member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame, Kindred grew up in Atlanta, Illinois, and attended Illinois Wesleyan University. While in college, Kindred began working for The Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois. He then became a full-time sportswriter and columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal before joining The Washington Post as a columnist in 1977. He later began writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The National Sports Daily, along with Golf Digest.
Kindred’s career of more than five decades included covering Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Secretariat, The Masters Tournament, the Olympics, World Series’ and Super Bowls. Kindred recently spoke of the book and his experiences in a recent interview with ABC News.
The author of several books, Kindred is one of only two sportswriters to earn the profession’s three highest honors – the Red Smith Award, the PEN America ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting.
Attendees are encouraged to submit questions for Kindred on the registration form or email questions to paulsimoninstitute@siu.edu.
More information, a list of the institute’s upcoming events and past speakers and events are available.