5 Minutes with Justice Hill

My Sportswriting class got an unbelievable opportunity to be able to Zoom in an interview with Justice Hill. Hill was a professor at Ohio University for journalism and a writer for numerous publications including MLB Advanced Media and the Seattle Times to highlight. He now spends most of his time traveling the world while doing freelance writing and journaling. If you have never heard of Mr. Hill, I highly encourage you to take a look at his website.

Hill In Homer, Alaska

I had read some background information on Hill before the interview, but that couldn't even begin to prepare me for who this guy is.

The interview started with a silhouette of Hill backlighted by a floor-to-ceiling window. He apologized for the lighting saying "Well you know I'm in Colombia and one of the weaknesses [with this apartment] is that it has no light". A few minutes later after a brief talk about Barry Bonds losing out on his final chance to be a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, he expressed his feelings about Bonds. "The only experience I had with Bonds was an absolutely fantastic one".

As soon as I could wrap my head around how casually he dropped that, he followed by saying "It was me, him, and Ken Griffey Jr. at the All-Star Game in 2007, and the three of us, we had a wonderful talk for about an hour".

I mean the guy was as casual as can be. As the class was silently debating whether this guy was making up stories, he opened up the floor to let us ask him some questions. Here is what he had to say.

Q: You have talked about how to start the conversation as a sportswriter, do you have any comments on how that is possible with women's professional sports in general?

A: One of the things about doing women's sports is just like what coaches tell you about coaching women's sports. It is so much easier to do than men. They have less ego. They will enjoy the conversation that you care about their sport. I wish more sportswriters and journalists had an interest in covering women's sports. Women work every bit as hard at their craft as men do. They don't take any shortcuts. They don't take any days off. They have the same rituals that the guys do. Nobody cares to ask them about their careers and what drives them. You have to care.

Q: How difficult was it to re-enter the job search after your time at OU?

A: From one semester to the next, the chemistry of the class can differ. You can have a class where you hit all the notes and everything is in sync. You can [also] have a semester where nothing seems to work. I had one of these classes and I was sitting in my office when I met the former sports editor of the Fort Waye Gazette. For some reason, he thought I would be interested in replacing him as sports editor. The managing editor of the paper called me and said "Hey! Would you be interested in coming to talk to us about being sports editor of our newspaper?" I said "Wow. That's intriguing." Over Christmas break, I met with her and her staff and when I came back to campus I told the director of the J[ournalism] school that I was quitting. He told me he was going to offer early tenure just to keep me. I told him I wasn't ready at that point in my life to give up journalism. There are a lot of things I want to accomplish while I still can.

Q: What are some things we can walk away with in terms of writing features as sports reporters?

A: The best thing I can tell anyone who wants to be a feature writer is, "writers read writer's writing". Don't read just sports stories. I encourage everyone to read every story that won the Pulitzer Prize in the feature writing category. What you'll find is a great sense of storytelling, and what editors think is great storytelling. The two stories I would recommend, and neither one are sports stories, is Jon Franklin's marvelous piece that won the first Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. Mrs. Kelly's Monster is loosely about brain surgery, but it has nothing to do with brain surgery once you get to read it. The other is Frank Sinatra Has a Cold. Gay Talese's brilliant piece is about Frank Sinatra, but he never interviewed Frank Sinatra. It's a marvelous example of what you can do even if you don't have access to the rich and famous. The last thing I can say is a writer that reads a lot is very, very, very important. If you don't enjoy reading you're never going to be great at this craft. In my opinion, it's not possible.

Next week, I'm gonna dive into some women's college basketball, and how the tournament is going to shake out this year.