Some of sports journalism’s best, who also happen to be alumni of Michigan State University, will return to campus this Thursday to take part in the second annual Spartan Sports Journalism Classic.
The daylong event, which will feature panels of working journalists discussing timely topics in sports journalism, as well as “speed coaching” for students, is April 10 at the MSU Communication Arts and Sciences Building.
The list of participants includes Charles Robinson, senior investigative reporter for Yahoo! Sports; Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News; Dave Birkett, who covers the Detroit Lions for the Detroit Free Press; Lynn Henning, baseball writer and columnist for the Detroit News; Jo-Ann Barnes, former Detroit Free Press sports writer; and former NBA all-star, Olympic gold medalist and NBA analyst Steve Smith.
"I'm honored to once again be a part of the Spartan Sports Journalism Classic and to support the best sports journalism program in the country," said Smith, who played for MSU’s basketball team from 1987 to 1991. "MSU played a big part in my life and it's always nice to come back and connect with the next generation of sports media professionals."
Smith, who was part of the 2000 Olympic gold medal basketball team in Sydney, Australia, will moderate a panel discussion – “All-Star Panel: Covering the Olympic Games."
The panel discussion is from 4 to 5 p.m. in WKAR Studio A. Participants include Barnes, Robinson, Gosselin and Craig Custance, a hockey writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com.
In addition, journalists will share their career experiences and insights with journalism students during morning classes and participate in “speed coaching” that afternoon. Students will have five minutes to promote themselves to one of the working journalists before a whistle blows and they are off to a new round.
For more information on the Spartan Sports Journalism Classic, please visit http://cas.msu.edu/spartan-sports-journalism-classic-returns-april-10/.