Welcome

The launch of the website of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism is a landmark milestone for those of us who had the privilege of watching Povich manage his professional life for at least some of his 75-year career at The Washington Post.

If we were to have the good fortune to ask Povich to do a column on this site, Povich, who died in 1998 at the age of 92, likely would have said: “I’ll have a look.” He also would have asked about the sports journalism center named after him and wondered about the intent of the site.

We would have told him the center – located in and supported enthusiastically by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland – serves the college’s students and professional journalists through academic offerings, research, analysis and most importantly, discussion.

The site will cover the most important sports media issues of the day, reflect the changing world of media and provide Merrill students, as well as professionals outside the college, an opportunity to express their views. We want to share what other sports journalism centers, newspapers, websites and knowledgeable members of the sports journalism fraternity are reporting and doing.

Book reviews, profiles of Merrill graduates in the news business, commentary on broadcasts and broadcasters and media decisions are all fair game, including what we are doing here.

We’ll also take a regular look back at what Shirley Povich wrote on issues of his day that might translate to what’s happening now. And, if we occasionally unearth and slip in a Red Smith or Jim Murray column, we’d all be better for it, including too many yougsters who have no idea who those men were.

So hold on and get ready for a roller coaster ride that we hope will be interesting and fun.

George Solomon is the director of The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He was the Sports Editor of The Washington Post from 1975-2003.