Rick Telander

Rick Telander is the senior sports columnist for the "Chicago Sun-Times". Hired in 1995 from "Sports Illustrated" where he was a Senior Writer, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnists the rival "Chicago Tribune" had.

Telander is a native of Peoria, Illinois and attended Northwestern University on a football scholarship. He played for coach Alex Agase as a cornerback (and punter junior year),making All-Big Ten his senior season and two-time All-Big Ten Academic. His teammates included Mike Adamle, who is also now a member of the Chicago media.

After graduating from Northwestern, Telander was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs but was cut in training camp. Soon after, he moved to New York where he played basketball on city playgrounds and wrote the book "Heaven Is A Playground," which later was made into a movie. In the 1980s, he was a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated and was quickly recognized as a rising star. As the college football beat writer in the mid-1980s, he reported on the scandals that plagued the University of Miami, University of Oklahoma, University of South Carolina, and Southern Methodist University. He also observed what he believed to be hypocrisy by the National Collegiate Athletic Association as the college athletes would help the NCAA and the member schools make money, yet couldn't share in the wealth. Telander's 1990 book "The Hundred-Yard Lie" addressed the problems in college football.

In Dec. 1985, Telander was invited to be a regular panelist on "The Sportswriters on TV", a debut weekly show featuring the Chicago Tribune's Bill Jauss, the Daily Southtown's Bill Gleason and former boxing promoter Ben Bentley. Telander was 20 years younger than the three other panelists. The show, the first of its kind, was nationally syndicated and developed a cult following before concluding its run in 2000.

While with the Sun-Times, Telander continued writing for "Sports Illustrated" until 1998, when he signed a deal with ESPN. Telander would regularly contribute to "ESPN: The Magazine" and ESPN.com appear on ESPN television shows like The Sports Reporters (which some critics viewed as a knockoff of the "Sportswriters on TV"), and host a radio program on ESPN radio. After the multi-year deal expired, Telander sporadically would contribute to Sports Illustrated, and host a radio show on WSCR-AM.

Telander was co-winner of the 2006 Illinois Sportswriter of the Year award as voted by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He won the award in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007. He has had his work collected in ``The Best American Sportswriting Anthology" six times (most recently 2008) and has won six Peter Lisagor Wards for Sports Journalism. He is the author of eight books, one of which, ``Heaven Is A Playground," was named one of the ``Ten Best Sports Books of All Time" by Playboy Magazine, and one of the ``100 Best Sports Books" by Sports Illustrated.

2008 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot controversy

In January 2008, Telander caused waves by refusing to submit a 2008 baseball Hall of Fame ballot, citing frustration with steroid issues troubling baseball. He mentioned in his January 9, 2008 Chicago Sun-Times column how he can't trust anyone on the ballot, and as such can't vote for any of them. Telander used Andre Dawson as an example of someone he doesn't believe ever used steroids, but also said he (Telander) could never completely know for certain. Of note is the fact that Telander voted for two known steroid users, José Canseco and Ken Caminiti in the previous year's Hall of Fame ballot. He did this, as he wrote in his Sun-Times column, as a protest, arguing that the shame of steroid users and the``Steroid Era" should be prserved this way for all generations to witness.

The fury erupted very publicly after Chicago sports-talk radio show host Mike North took Telander to task while interviewing Andre Dawson on January 9, 2008. Telander eventually called Dawson personally, read his column to the former star, and the issue was laid to rest.

ee also

*University of South Carolina steroid scandal

References

*http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/732287,CST-SPT-rick09.article
*http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20061222/ai_n17076658