By Ed Otte

Ignoring the top sports story of the day – release of the NFL Deflategate report – longtime sports writer Doug Looney discussed life lessons on May 6 at the Denver Press Club.

“Be lucky” is one of the lessons the former Sports Illustrated senior writer listed at the Fireside Chat sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Doug Looney, former Sports Illustrated writer

“One time I brought home a report card that wasn’t very good,” Looney said. His mother, Vera, “looked at it a long time. A long time. Finally, she said: ‘It’s a good thing you’re lucky because you’re not very smart.'”

The “solid 2.2 student” while attending CU-Boulder admitted, however, that “a lot goes into being lucky. Have an open mind about your career. Think big. Don’t let your career happen to you. Don’t let yourself be stuck in your career. Do anything. If you fail – and we all do, spectacularly – consider it an opportunity to improve. Consider taking a ridiculous leap of faith. Are you willing to work that hard? Big breaks come in unlikely situations.”

Have an open mind. When the Boulder native was cut from his basketball team at age 16, “I was so depressed. My mother said: ‘Why don’t you write about the team for the high school newspaper?’ It was pivotal.”

Journalism had a family appeal. His father, Robert, worked at the Daily Camera for more than 40 years, as a reporter and in various editor positions including managing editor.

Think big. “I was only going to write in New York or Washington.  That guided everything I did. When I was a student, I could have a job writing sports for a Boulder newspaper for 50 cents an hour or be a cook at a CU dorm for $1 an hour. I chose the local paper job rather than flipping eggs in the morning for more money.”

Don’t let your career happen to you. “You have to be proactive. When I grew up in Boulder there was civil rights unrest. But I knew nothing about blacks or Hispanics. I knew about white protestants. I knew I should know about the South and civil rights. I decided I had to live in the South to learn about race relations. I took a job with the Nashville Banner. I went there as the third man in a three-person police bureau. Covering the race riots, I got tear gas in my eyes hiding behind tanks leaking oil.”

Don’t get stuck in your career and take a ridiculous leap of faith. “I was comfortable in Nashville but I wanted to move on. The Omaha World Herald tried to get me to be city editor but I wanted Washington. Better Homes and Gardens offered a lot of money to be special assignments editor – that showed they didn’t know what to do with me – and I was miserable. Worst job I ever had. Only job I ever hated. But it turned out to be the best job I ever had because it led to other jobs.”

With the muted Chicago Bulls-Cleveland Cavaliers NBA playoff game on the flat-screen television, Looney, 73, admitted his early reporting goal wasn’t sports.

“I wrote to the National Observer, I told them I wanted to write politics. Richard Nixon was president and it was a good time to cover Washington. But they asked me to write sports. I took the job and it was a truly wonderful experience.”

Do anything because big breaks come in unlikely situations. “I had an unusual definition of sports and I covered the National Hollerin’ Contest in North Carolina, world marble shooting championships in New Jersey, world chess match in Iceland, hot pepper eating championships in Louisiana. And I met other writers at those events, including an SI guy, and they called (in 1975) and offered me a job.”

Are you willing to work that hard? “When I was at SI, there were a lot writers better than me. I was 28th on a list of 30 writers. But I would go anywhere. Others wouldn’t do that. Some people are perfectly content to show up at the office at 9 a.m. and leave at 5 p.m. I don’t understand that. You have to work a lot of weekends, a lot of Saturday and Sunday mornings and holidays. I remember a call Christmas morning asking me to go cover an event and I did it. One time I was told to cover harness racing in upstate New York. I went to the SI library and asked: ‘What the hell is harness racing?’ They laughed at me.”

“Another time an SI editor told me I was going to Paris to cover the world figure skating championships. When I told my wife, she laughed. I knew nothing about skating. I called (Olympic and world champion) Dick Button and told him, and he laughed. But he said come over and look at tapes. I became an expert on the double-axle – which I knew nothing about before.”

If you fail. “One time, I wrote a story at SI that nobody liked. I knew I was in trouble. I got a call to go to Akron, Ohio, to cover the world bowling championships. I knew I was being punished. But I poured myself into it and SI loved it.”

After the 1963 CU graduate retired from Sports Illustrated in 1997, he was an adjunct journalism instructor at the university and served as chair of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication advisory board. During his 22 years at the magazine, Looney covered college game fixing scandals, colorful coaches and unpopular sports issues  He co-authored “Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed Its Ideals for Football Glory.” The book, published in 1993, sparked controversy in the NCAA and angry criticism of the authors.

Being a public figure, even a sports writer, can produce serious life-lesson lessons.

“When I was in Nashville, I covered a Jimmy Hoffa jury tampering trial in the late 1960s,” Looney said. “One day, Hoffa asked if I wanted to go to lunch with him. I asked why. He said: ‘You’re the only one who doesn’t seem to be bothered being seen with me.’ He told me about phone calls he was getting from people saying they were going to kill him. He said those people didn’t worry him. He worried about the ones who don’t call.”

The former Teamsters union leader with links to organized crime vanished in 1975.