The Man Behind the Pen
Troy Johnson traded in dreams of crunching numbers in an accountant cubical for an athletic press box.
Going though most of his high school years oblivious to the world of journalism, it wasn’t until his senior year that he began to experiment with the yearbook staff.
Johnson wasn’t impressed and still held the drive to become an accountant. However, he never found his niche in the banking world.
“Getting C’s in mathematics consistently wasn’t going to work,” said Johnson.
In his sophomore year at Troy University, where he was given a football scholarship, he found his way onto the school’s newspaper staff. In an interview, Johnson told Swampland.com that his internship with the Birmingham News solidified his love for the newspaper business.
Since his days reporting local sports in Alabama, Johnson has racked in a portfolio that includes every major sporting event in the last 10 years including the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.
“I have a lot of really cool passport stamps.”
Having been a regal member of the sports media world for over a decade, he showered the attendees of the 2011 Auburn University Summer Journalism Workshop with his knowledge.
“If you write about sports long enough you’ll see the worst in the field. You just have to take the good with the bad.”
Johnson stressed, to the class of 17 young journalists, that sports writing is centered around the details of the article. According to Johnson, fans don’t only want to read the scores from the game. They want to be able to feel the intensity in the stadium and to picture the plays exploding off the field.
“Good sports writing can be poetic if done really well,” said Johnson.
Along with sports journalism comes the naysayers who argue it isn’t the real deal in journalism. Johnson explained his view from past experiences.
“When I was in college, first time I ever stepped foot into a daily newspaper, newsroom I heard an editor refer to sports as the toy department because they think its all fun and games. I mean I won’t say that it is not that. A lot of days writing about sports is pretty light for the most part, but the thing that I would explain there is that I wrote about arrests, I wrote about contracts and budgets, you know money matters that relate to the sports.”
Johnson left the students with a tip that he confesses is a rule that all sports journalist should honor.
“The unspoken sports writing rule: No cheering from the press boxes.”
Going though most of his high school years oblivious to the world of journalism, it wasn’t until his senior year that he began to experiment with the yearbook staff.
Johnson wasn’t impressed and still held the drive to become an accountant. However, he never found his niche in the banking world.
“Getting C’s in mathematics consistently wasn’t going to work,” said Johnson.
In his sophomore year at Troy University, where he was given a football scholarship, he found his way onto the school’s newspaper staff. In an interview, Johnson told Swampland.com that his internship with the Birmingham News solidified his love for the newspaper business.
Since his days reporting local sports in Alabama, Johnson has racked in a portfolio that includes every major sporting event in the last 10 years including the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.
“I have a lot of really cool passport stamps.”
Having been a regal member of the sports media world for over a decade, he showered the attendees of the 2011 Auburn University Summer Journalism Workshop with his knowledge.
“If you write about sports long enough you’ll see the worst in the field. You just have to take the good with the bad.”
Johnson stressed, to the class of 17 young journalists, that sports writing is centered around the details of the article. According to Johnson, fans don’t only want to read the scores from the game. They want to be able to feel the intensity in the stadium and to picture the plays exploding off the field.
“Good sports writing can be poetic if done really well,” said Johnson.
Along with sports journalism comes the naysayers who argue it isn’t the real deal in journalism. Johnson explained his view from past experiences.
“When I was in college, first time I ever stepped foot into a daily newspaper, newsroom I heard an editor refer to sports as the toy department because they think its all fun and games. I mean I won’t say that it is not that. A lot of days writing about sports is pretty light for the most part, but the thing that I would explain there is that I wrote about arrests, I wrote about contracts and budgets, you know money matters that relate to the sports.”
Johnson left the students with a tip that he confesses is a rule that all sports journalist should honor.
“The unspoken sports writing rule: No cheering from the press boxes.”