Bagnato Byline Brings Back Bygone Memories

      Boise State’s improbable, never-say-die, underdog victory over Oklahoma has been amply dissected and disseminated by scores of sportswriters.  As much as I enjoyed the game as a fan, there is nothing I can add to this “Instant Classic.”  However, one game story leaped out at me above all others.  The byline of the AP game story the morning after spoke to me like the first day of journalism school.

             I remember the bitter cold of the 50-yard walk from my dorm door to Fisk Hall’s stately entrance.  It was the first week of classes in January 1987 and as an 18-year-old freshman I met my first journalism lab instructor: young, dashing, funny Andy Bagnato.  He was only two years removed from his student days at the Daily Northwestern when he returned to campus to teach a lab for Professor Roger Boye’s Basic Writing 101. 

In one of our first classes,

Bagnato pulled his overcoat collar up, pretended he was a Chicago P.D. investigator and asked a dozen freshman students to grill him with questions. Information was hard to come by.  This “investigator” was used to media types showing up in precincts dotted around Chicago’s both rough and revered neighborhoods and it was a bit of a game for him.  He had information the cub reporters wanted.   As a grizzled cop, this character was still flattered by the attention, but he stuck hard by the code of one of Americana’s most parochial police departments.  After a brief statement, he refused to leak a single detail the reporters didn’t specifically ask for.  He was tight-lipped and terse with his words, belying the intimate details of the “who, what, where, when, why” that he knew but wouldn’t freely release without challenging his audience with cat-and-mouse dialogue.  When he did show any emotion, it was a glimpse of Bagnato’s true personality.  He flashed a smile as bright as an investigator’s badge, hoping to ignite a passion for the truth that was the bedrock of the century-old writing institution, the Medill School of Journalism.

            That was 20 years ago – this week.  Andy’s byline now reads Andrew and the Associated Press apparently employs him in Arizona.  I don’t know how many classes Andy ever taught at Northwestern, but I am sure he had as much of an impact on others as he did me.  Through him and my time at Medill, I learned that Daily Northwestern sports reporters could sit confidently alongside the city’s most grizzled reporters on press row at Chicago sporting events.  Through him I learned that anything short of the truth garnered an “F” – no ifs, and or buts – and grammatical errors earned just as chilling a mark.  Although I never followed Andy into the noble newspaper industry, he planted and sowed seeds in me that brought about a greater respect and appreciation for the estate, its practitioners and Medill, a degree from which still signals instant respect and a tacit acknowledgement that “the truth” exists – and can be put into newsprint.

            My opinions of television, radio, magazine and newspaper journalism have diversified and I have become somewhat jaded.  But I still relish a morning paper, a mixture of “news judgment”, argument and agate.  I still think “news gathering” organizations like the Washington Post warrant our attention far more than some of its imitators and successors that have dotted the new media landscape.  And I still scan bylines, for the Andy Bagnatos who provided my inspiration, and the Victor Chis, who labored alongside me in Fisk’s classrooms.  How many others covered the Boise State Broncos’ BCS-busting win over the Sooners?  I don’t know, but a recent scan of friends and acquaintances from my Medill days reveals some terrific success stories in the media:

• Amy (Radabaugh) Hollyfield (Class of ‘91): St. Pete Times sports editor.  I absolutely love Amy and her husband, Lawrence.  I last saw them at the inaugural Tom FitzGerald Soccer Classic. Amy’s guest column about the Catholic Church’s change in liturgy was quite influential with me.  It was her print debut, she claims, 15 years after earning her degree.  Not only did I agree with her on the subject matter, the column helped shake the doldrums from my fountain pen and encourage me to begin writing again.

• Victor Chi (Class of ’91): I love return trips to the Bay Area and grabbing a copy of the San Jose Mercury News to see Victor’s latest story.  A clever, acerbic and detailed individual and a great writer.

• Michael “Beer Mike” Kates (Class of ’90): I’ve lost touch with this classmate, who I can’t help but describe as part-Charles Barkley, part-Tony Kornheiser.  Last I heard he was editing sports at the Chicago Tribune and overachieving in his marriage and family life!

• Mark Fainaru-Wada (Class of ’87): He seemed imperial as the Editor of the Daily Northwestern when I was the awestruck freshman in Andy Bagnato’s class.  Fainaru’s breakthrough reporting and ethical stance on the Barry Bonds’ steroid story will be subject matter at Medill for the next century.  Free Mark!

• Tim Kawakami (Class of ’87): My first sports editor at the Daily, I worshipped his confidence, leadership and breadth of writing.  I would love to know how and when he embraced the boxing beat – just a mere drop of his voluminous writing at the San Jose Mercury News. He has a blog, too, here.   

• Hannah Buchdahl (Class of ’89):  For every beat-digging, truth-finding hard-core Medill graduate who went to write for a newspaper, we ought to have at least one Hannah.  A versatile television producer for almost two decades, we’ve seen Hannah’s influence on programming ranging from CNN Headline News to America’s Next Top Model.

This list could go on, and on, and on.  I’m proud of my association with Medill.  I am proud to have studied with these bright lights.  And it all started in Basic Writing 101, twenty years ago this week.