Sportswriter Bob Ryan has two keys to success, he told Syracuse University students Monday: fairness and sports expertise.

Ryan, who retired from The Boston Globe in 2012 after 44 years as a sportswriter, shared his illustrious career on Monday with the audience at the I-3 Center inside the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Ryan also described his unusually straightforward path to sports journalism fame.

“Do your homework,” he said about becoming thorough with sports history. “Treat it like an academic discipline.”

Ryan knew when it was time to retire from his job at The Boston Globe. He said he was glad he was able to keep his relationship with local television and ESPN.

Ryan continues to write a few times per month for The Boston Globe in his retirement. He often plays a role on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” serves as a regular guest on “The Sports Reporters” and sometimes guest hosts “Pardon the Interruption” with Tony Kornheiser or Michael Wilbon.

The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association selected Ryan into the Sportswriter Hall of Fame in 2011. He acknowledged the organization for bringing him together with great names within the industry.

Forging a path toward the limelight from a young age, Ryan said he would regularly attend Friday night high school basketball games and would read the morning newspaper the following day.

“Most 7-year-olds aren’t like this,” he said, admitting he was “programmed” to find a place for himself in the profession.

After dabbling in both writing and broadcasting, he found his forte. He worked stints on television, but he said he enjoyed the independent nature of the newspaper industry, where he could cover a game and write the story in the comfort of his home.

“But I am a writer, and that is what I want to be known as,” read one of his well-known quotes featured on posters advertising the event.

“Bob Ryan is the best basketball writer of all time,” said Drew Carter, a freshman broadcast and digital journalism student who is also a contributing writer for The Daily Orange.

Growing up within a generation that rarely reads game recaps, Carter said he recognized there is something different about Ryan’s writing ability that catches his attention.

“I got to meet one of my writing heroes, and I learned a ton about the industry,” said Carter, who was “so happy” he decided to attend.

Growing up in the Boston area, Ryan attended Boston College after being rejected from Yale University and Williams College, he said. At Boston College, he assisted in the Sports Information Department by writing player profiles for the basketball team.

Through his work in the sports information office at Boston College, Ryan secured an internship with The Boston Globe. He then went on active duty in the military, he said, but received a verbal promise from The Boston Globe for the next job opening.

When he returned from serving overseas and started working at The Boston Globe, he said he missed his first writing deadline because he was overconfident. He warned students in attendance to concentrate on their goals.

Ryan boasted great pride working for a single company for 44 years. He said no other writer has accomplished that feat.

When asked about a declining industry, Ryan said journalism is “still a very, very fun way to make a living.”

Ryan credited reading as a main proponent of his endeavors, saying if you don’t love reading as a journalist, then you’re in the wrong business.

Richard Block, a Class of 1974 Newhouse alumnus who studied broadcast and digital journalism, said he thought Ryan had some good advice for students.

“He’s been a tremendous columnist over the years,” Block said.

Block added that he agreed with Ryan’s advice and thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Ryan’s progression from college to the present.

Before his retirement, Ryan had the opportunity to cover championships in all four primary professional sports — football, basketball, hockey and baseball — according to his farewell article in The Boston Globe on Aug. 12, 2012.

The crux of Ryan’s hall of fame career included the coverage of 29 NCAA Final Fours and 11 Olympic Games.

“I cannot tell you how to get a job,” Ryan said, but “be ready when the opportunity comes.”

Published on January 25, 2016 at 11:09 pm

Contact Kenneth: kmintz@syr.edu