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About Jason Whitlock

Povich
Center
About
SNCPB

By Jake Eisenberg and Kofie Yeboah

Jason Lee Whitlock, 47, was born in Warren Township in East Indianapolis. Whitlock entered Ball State University as an accounting major and a scholarship athlete. Much of his time was spent on the football field as an offensive lineman, and he lettered two years.

After brief stints at The Herald-Times and The Charlotte Observer, Whitlock traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1992 and began covering the University of Michigan basketball team. His coverage of the “Fab Five” drew national attention, and shortly thereafter, Whitlock was hired by The Kansas City Star.

It was at The Star as a sports columnist that Whitlock began to formulate his credo as a writer. He became known for his controversial writing style that seamlessly integrated sports and culture, awakening readers to what he saw as injustices or untruths in the sporting world.

Discussion revolving around his columns took him to appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and other television programs. While at The Star, he wrote for ESPN.com’s Page 2 beginning in 2002, and was a frequent contributor to several ESPN shows, including Jim Rome is Burning, Pardon the Interruption, and The Sports Reporters.

He left ESPN in less-than-amicable fashion in 2006 to write an online column for AOL Sports and to contribute to Fox Sports.His columns provoke discussion, and he has been described as “fundamentally unafraid” by colleague and friend Dan Le Batard, a columnist for The Miami Herald and an ESPN host. Additionally, he is a recipient of the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award — the first sportswriter to win the award.

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