Mark Purdy: life as a journalist

By Patricia Ho

Mark Purdy arrives 15 minutes late and fresh off the phone to an Arts and Sciences classroom filled with eager journalism students. He carries no baggage - his arms are kept free of briefcases and overcoats. His graying brown hair is slicked back off his face and only a cellular phone accompanies him. He is a little flustered but lands firmly on his feet.

The popular San Jose Mercury News sports columnist and editorial writer enlightened and entertained, holding the class' attention for over an hour in a roundtable discussion.

Topics ranged from Fidel Castro, who once ousted Purdy from a prime seat at a bowling tournament, to discourses about which Olympic sport is the stupidest.

"I think if you go to the heart of every journalist, you'll find someone who, when he or she was young, liked to find out things first and then tell other people about it. And that's what we do," he said about the nature of his trade.

"I love writing about people mainly, but also about the games in the sense that sports, if you think about it, is a regularly scheduled drama," he said. "Everyday there's a game somewhere. There's a winner, there's a loser, there's a hero, there's a goat. There's always a story in each game, and I really like finding out that story and telling people about it."

And the story, Purdy reveals, is never confined to the playing field.

As a member on the board of directors for the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, Purdy's job is to ensure that athletes and coaches get the recognition they deserve. He tells the story of one of this year's inductees, pioneering whirlwind Betty Hicks.

Winning her first golf tournament at the age of 18, Hicks helped to pave the way for professional women golfers today. She co-founded the Women's Professional Golf Association, instructed fellow female golfers and lists a pilot's license as some of her achievements.

"That's a really good feeling that you could tell people this woman's story. And see this woman take the stage and receive some applause for the amazing things she did," Purdy said. "Yes it's fun to write columns and spout off and have opinions and have people tell you you're full of crap and all that - that's fun too.

"But to be able to tell a story, that's really what journalism is," he said."Tell a story so that people who might not have thought once about something before end up thinking twice about it."

While Purdy acknowledges the social significance sports can have, he is also aware of its entertainment value.

"You don't know how it's going to come out. If you watch a movie, maybe somebody's already told you how it's going to end. Or if it's a James Bond movie, James Bond ain't gonna die," he said. "But if you go watch a sports event, there's no way to tell. That sixth game of the World Series, there were so many twists and turns, you just didn't know."

The unpredictable nature of sports is both the blessing and bane of Purdy's job.

"The most fun part of my job is that when you get up in the morning, you never know what's going to happen," he said. "In conjunction with the skills you need to learn to report you kind of also need to learn to wake up, figure out what's going on, and then roll with it."

However, because sports go on irregardless of journalist's personal lives, the spontaneity has its downsides.

"The toughest part on your personal life is not so much the travel as the unexpected stuff: when it's supposed to be your off day and Bill Walsh quits the 49ers or Joe Montana is traded to the Chiefs and you were planning to go out to dinner with your wife that night," Purdy said.

The hectic nature of journalism has also compelled Purdy to write columns on sidewalks, sleep on office floors and forego honeymoons.

Nonetheless, he encourages aspiring journalists to pursue the trade.

His advice to students is to not limit themselves to newspapers. He sees technology changing the way people obtain information.

"I don't think it's going to be a lump of paper on people's porch. I think it's gonna be something else.

"As long as you know how to read, write, assemble content and put it in a form that people can understand, I think you are going to be in great shape," he said.