Kentucky HOF journalist Dave Kindred and the inspiration for his new book

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Dave Kindred has been a columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, National Sports Daily, Sporting News, and Golf Digest. He has won three of the sportswriting profession’s most prestigious honors: The Red Smith Award, the PEN America ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing, and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sports Writing. He won the Curt Gowdy Award presented for excellence in writing by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

He has covered Super Bowls, World Series, Olympic Games, the Masters, heavyweight championship fights, and many other major sporting events all over the world. During his time with the Courier-Journal, he got to know and cover Muhammad Ali, and continued to do so for 50 years. Now, after retiring from newspapers, he has found a new direction in his career that has turned into an important chapter of his personal life as well. He is back in his native central Illinois, writing about the games of a high school girls basketball team, the Morton High School Lady Potters. That started as a way to stay active in sports writing, but has gone far beyond that. His connection to the team and the community has been a great source of support for him during difficult personal times, including the loss of his wife, his mother and a grandson all within a few years. He talks about that in this podcast, and tells the story (also featured on CBS' 60 Minutes), in detail in his latest book, “My Home Team: A Sportswriter’s Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketball.”