Sportswriter, Author Frank Deford to Speak on Campus Tonight
Renowned sportswriter, commentator and author Frank Deford will be on campus this evening as a guest speaker for the President's Lecture Series. His talk, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Big Blue Room of the Ted Constant Convocation Center, is free and open to the public and will be followed with a book signing. Parking will be available in the 43rd Street garage.
Deford is the author of 15 books; his newest, "The Entitled," a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007. Two of Deford's books - the novel, "Everybody's All-American," and "Alex: The Life of a Child," his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis - have been made into movies.
On radio, Deford can be heard as a commentator every Wednesday on "Morning Edition" on National Public Radio and, on television, he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show "RealSports With Bryant Gumbel." He is also the senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated.
As a journalist, Deford has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. Six times he was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of the Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review.
Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles, a Christopher Award, and journalism Honor Awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "the world's greatest sportswriter."
In broadcast, Deford has won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award. ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, "You Write Better Than You Play." A popular lecturer, Deford has spoken at more than 100 colleges.
For 16 years, Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He lives in Westport, Conn. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught in American studies.