On the ball : Freedom Forum Distinguished Visiting Prof. John Marvel teaches Sports Reporting and In-Depth Reporting. (Photo by Andrea Morales)
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Like a coach, Freedom Forum Distinguished Visiting Prof. John Marvel gets his students pumped up. He jumps around, demanding they divulge something that will “shock us all.” He slaps his knees, pumps his fists and crows with laughter at the fun facts, jovially addressing the equally enthused students by their last names or nicknames.
Marvel joined UF’s journalism faculty for the spring semester to teach Sports Reporting and In-Depth Reporting after working the past eight years at ESPN. As vice president/editor-at-large, he directed investigative and enterprise reporting for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com.
Educated at Boston University and Metropolitan State College, he spent his early journalism years on the Houston Post, Arizona Republic, Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News sports staffs. He was a reporter and sports columnist at the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times and lead sports columnist at the Peninsula Times Tribune.
“We’re trying to give our students more opportunities to do broadcasting and online work so they can blend, and he certainly has the experience,” said Department of Journalism Chair William McKeen. “One of our most neglected classes is Sports.”
In 2004, Marvel filled a weeklong Hearst visiting professorship at the College.
“We’ve seen him teach here before,” McKeen said, “seen how good he is in the classroom.”
“Adrenaline – lots of adrenaline,” Marvel said of his first day in the classroom. “I haven’t felt that kind of excitement in my stomach in a long time.”
He grinned and gestured wildly as he described the students’ first assignment: to randomly select an index card with a sports-related topic, anything from football to gymnastics, and either keep it or attempt to swap it with another student’s. A feature on that topic was due the next week.
“It was a bit scary at first,” said Natasha Weinstein, a third-year journalism student in Sports. “But he’s trying to teach us that, during our time as journalists, our editor could give us a story we know or care nothing about. It’s a valid lesson.”
Marvel imparts advice such as “ ‘no’ means keep trying,” punctuating his belief in perseverance with a fist pump.
“If I can share some experiences and shape the vision of what journalism should be,” he said, “and they go into the profession excited about it and hungry, then I’ve done my job.”
Marvel left ESPN and plans to freelance, write books and possibly make documentaries. He and his wife, Julie, and 12-year-old son, James, recently moved from Connecticut to San Francisco to join Julie’s family. Eventually, Marvel hopes to teach.
“This is a great opportunity in the middle of my career,” he said, “to see if this is what I want to do.”
