Conquering the Press Box: Transforming a Dream into Reality

With Hurricane Ike making its impact down south, the Midwest was taking on its own version of a horrible storm as the rain in Evanston, Illinois tried to wash out the biggest day of my young career.  Heavy downpours for over 12 hours transformed Ryan Field, home of the Northwestern Wildcats, into the city swimming pool.

The Wildcats were taking on in-state rival Southern Illinois for an early 11 am matchup.  This game would be my first ever live sporting event as a member of the media, so I made sure to leave my north suburban home early, especially with cars spinning out in all directions on the slick roads.

After a somehow carefree drive, I pulled into the “permit only” parking lot two-and-a-half hours before kickoff.  Making sure to upset the rain gods above, I attempted to run from my car with a flimsy umbrella blowing in tornado-like winds with a briefcase strapped to my side.

Much to my disappointment, the media entrance is harder to find than the Bermuda triangle, so the umbrella really did nothing as my freshly ironed suit became drenched within seconds.

Once I finally reached the correct gate, I took the private elevator up to the media room and realized that all the hard work I had done to up to this moment was about to pay off.

The giant room was filled with piles of free donuts, desserts, coffee, lemonade, and unlimited Internet, all for me.  Each media member was given a game program filled with three pounds of stats and information about the Wildcats and Salukis.

The only rule enforced: “one water bottle per person” from the gigantic community refrigerator.  I figured I could live with that.

I grabbed a light breakfast (hot coffee, a lemon-cream filled pastry, six chocolate donut holes, and a sugar-glazed bear claw) and looked for my name tag along the line of chairs.  Luck struck again, as my seat was on the 45-yard line in the first of two rows.

As I felt my waistline begin to expand from the donuts, I set up my laptop and made conversation with a few Southern Illinois media members who were roaming around the area (turns out there really are more things to do in Southern Illinois than just eat and watch football, at least according to them).

Mike Wolf, Northwestern’s media director, introduced himself to me and made sure if there was anything I needed, just ask him and he would make it happen.  Mr. Wolf and his staff were fantastic and did a phenomenal job making everyone feel like royalty.  It was an honor to cover my first game in his press box.

The players came out into the rain around 9:45 am and ran through some pregame drills as I was busy stuffing my face in the air-conditioned room watching from above.  After killing time and becoming familiar with common procedure (don’t arrive early unless you want to sit around and do nothing), the game began as my goal of watching football as a job became reality.

The entire game I took several notes on my laptop, mainly to have my thoughts already on the computer to work around later when writing a column.  The game was exciting for a while, benefiting from a rain-soaked field, but the Wildcats quickly showed the Salukis why their basketball team is the only thing to watch in town.  By halftime, the game was close to over. 

Of course, more free food was given out during the break, compliments of Hecky’s Barbecue (sorry, no free plugs, please make all checks payable to Samuel Wenk).  Equipped with a full stomach of pulled pork and baked beans, I watched the remainder of the game and left the press box before the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.

A reporter named Lou was very kind when I asked him where the press conference room was, as he gave me a personal tour to where head coach Pat Fitzgerald and several players would be open for questions.  Of the near 50 people that were in the press box during the game, it turned out only about 10 attended the press conference.

I placed my recorder onto the table in front of where the players would speak and jotted down a few notes as each gave their take on the 33-7 smackdown they just laid on the Salukis.

As first days go, this was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and I want to thank Aron Glatzer, the marketing manager of Bleacher Report, for giving me the opportunity.  I will be back again in Evanston to watch the Wildcats take on Heisman trophy candidate Curtis Painter and the Purdue Boilermakers later in October.

Hopefully by then, I’ll have learned it isn’t necessary to leave before the sun rises.