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End of an Era for Running Writer: Dick Patrick
By Steve Nearman
March/April 2010
For the Washington Running Report
They come and they go, Hobbs.
They come and they go.
I'll be around here longer than you or anybody else here.
---Sportswriter Max Mercy to baseball player Roy Hobbs in the movie "The Natural."
(Ed note: This article is based on a December 6, 2009 piece Steve Nearman wrote for The Washington Times before it decided to cut his column. On behalf of WRR and our readers, we extend a big thank you and sincere appreciation for all that both of these running writers have given to our sport.)
In 1986, Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Ingrid Kristiansen, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Sergey Bubka were sitting atop of the world. And that same year, sportswriter Dick Patrick began his long and illustrious career as the running writer at USA Today.
Those huge track and field names are long gone but Patrick wrote on for more than two decades. That 23-year voyage around and around the world, as Patrick calls "his dream job," ended in December when he was one of a few dozen editorial staff members cut at USA Today.
"The state of the (newspaper) industry is unfathomable," said Patrick from his Vienna, VA, home. "Since ‘07, it has been on a fast forward downward spiral. I can't believe how rapidly the business has gone down."
Patrick said he hopes to continue to cover running and track and field into the future.
"Maybe it won't necessarily be an end of an era, but I am hoping to find a way to chronicle the people and the sport," said Patrick, 59. "I don't know if there is any viability in newspapers anymore. I do think there are online opportunities.
Patrick said his foray into sports writing came by chance in 1975, two years after graduating from Hamilton College in New York. He lost his job at an ad agency when the firm lost two major accounts.
He said he proceeded to send out 150 letters and got one interview with the Finger Lakes Times in Geneva, NY, reporting on what most sportswriters do not desire covering--the sport of running.
His big break occurred in 1986, when he relocated to Washington to work for USA Today. "All on a trial basis, all I was guaranteed was three months," he said. "It turned into 23 years and the ride of my life."
That ride ended in December and, according to Patrick, the future does not look so bright. He said he has tried some freelancing but it is not steady enough nor lucrative enough to sustain a living for a husband and father of two.
"There really isn't any news that is definite," he said in February. "I am looking into Web sites. What I am finding is that the economy is affecting the radical change journalism is undergoing. It would be easier to find something to do if my specialty was baseball or the NFL or something like that, but running does not have as many outlets as the other sports do.
"I'm finding that a lot of newspapers are trying to conserve costs and they aren't even relying on freelance but going with wires," he added. "Phoenix wasn't even interested in a story on Bernard Lagat when it looked like he was a good bet to win his record eighth Millrose."
Of his 23 years with USA Today, Patrick said: "I never took it for granted. I appreciated every trip from 1988 and my first Olympics to my last Olympics in Beijing. I knew I wouldn't go on forever but I didn't imagine the newspaper industry would be in such dire straits."
Patrick said he has many fond memories, going back to his first World Championships in Rome, "an eye-popping event that exceeded expectations," and the 1988 World Cross Country Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. He said he is particularly fond of Boston Marathon week. "It's like a convention for runners," and he enjoyed covering Meb Keflezighi's New York City triumph this past year, the first American male winner there since Alberto Salazar, whose first of three victories he covered in 1980.
He also enjoyed covering the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials Track and Field in legendary track town Eugene, OR. "My fantasy would be to cover the 2012 trials in Eugene and take advantage of some nice runs there," he offered.
His worst day in the business: covering the death of Ryan Shay at the U.S. Olympic Trials Men's Marathon in New York City in November 2007.
Patrick said he is still looking to continue his career covering the sport of running, even in what he termed a "lousy economy." He said while he is hoping the economy improves, he must be open to the possibility of a career change.
Asked whether there are other careers that interest him, Patrick replied: "Not really." He said he thinks he might be able to contribute in a public relations capacity.
"But I'm still thinking that Web sites is probably the best way to go," he countered.
Nonetheless, Patrick was trackside at the venerable but fading Millrose Games at New York City's Madison Square Garden on January 29, as he has been for more than two decades.
The irony cannot be overlooked--a 103-year-old indoor track meet and a 34-year running journalist--both struggling to survive in a new world.
Steve Nearman, a veteran running writer and middle distance competitor, is the event director for the inaugural Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon to be held September 19, 2010.