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GrEAt IdEAs, as the saying goes, are born here. Basketball? Quite a concept. The Humanics philosophy? Hard to argue with it. Whether the communications/sports journalism (COSJ) major


belonged in that rarefied nursery was hard to know back with our first classes in the fall of 1999. Sure, it seemed like an appealing plan. This was a slice of the communications pie that Springfield College seemed uniquely well suited to take on. Deciding to imbed the major in the Humanities Department, with students taking literature as well as journalism classes, seemed a good path to train well-rounded professionals. But would the major flourish? In a media world poised for seismic change (who then could have imagined reporting news by shooting and editing and uploading video from a cell phone?), would we join the impressive leadership parade at Springfield College? Now, as we enter our 15th year—squarely in the midst of


puberty—the answer seems clear. Yes. Just within the past year, COSJ alums have covered a huge array of national stories, everything from the presidential campaign of Barack


Obama (Emily Neubauer ’10 for a TV station in Wisconsin), to the school shootings at Sandy Hook, Conn., (Paul Singley ’03 for Patch.com), to the Stanley Cup Finals (Mike Cole ’10 for NESN.com). Big things are happening. COSJ “founding father” Dennis gildea


has a book coming out this fall on legendary basketball coach/writer Clair Bee. Documentary filmmaker Jody Santos, radio/Internet maven kyle Belanger, and some guy named Dobrow remain actively involved in the field. In fact, on one Saturday in October 2011, we all were employing COSJ undergrads in our “real world journalism.” Santos was in North Carolina shooting about the CROP Hunger Walk with two students. Belanger had three students on the air with him broadcasting the Springfield College football game on 1450 AM Sport Radio. And I hired a student to take the photographs for an ESPNBoston.com feature story I was writing about a college cross country runner with Down syndrome. We try to give our students both roots and wings. It’s good to see so many COSJ grads soaring.


Newspaper : Anna Grearson


As Anna grearson ‘06 looked around the ballroom at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., on a Saturday in June, she knew she was in some elite company. The banquet honoring each state’s top sportscaster and sportswriter—as well as a few national winners—was sparkling with media luminaries. Peter king of Sports Illustrated. Dan Patrick of ESPN. Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press (and Tuesdays with Morrie fame). The endlessly caffeinated Dick Vitale. The sports editor of the Times-Argus in


Barre, Vt., she was completely at home— and yet, in one sense alone. Of the 110 winners, grearson was the only woman in the house. That distinction earned the Vermont Sportswriter of the Year for 2012 a big feature story in the Salisbury Post, as well as some head-scratching beneath her crown. “It’s weird to me that people think


“I went to SprIngfIeld College wIth a lot of Strong female role modelS…I thought It waS a lIttle dISConCertIng that I waS the only female to wIn natIonwIde, but I’ll gladly Carry the torCh for female SportSwrIterS.”


TRIANGLE 1 Vol . 84, No. 3


it’s weird,” grearson said. “I went to Springfield College with a lot of strong female role models…I thought it was a little disconcerting that I was the only female to win nationwide, but I’ll gladly carry the torch for female sportswriters.” grearson came by her love of sports honestly from


Grearson and Theo Epstein


her late parents. Her mom, Jennifer, had been a standout high school athlete who died of heart failure when Anna was 13. Anna was always close with her father, John, who managed a Vermont Over-30 baseball team for most of his adult life before his death from cancer at 57 in 2010. “I grew up in a house where I was a complete Daddy’s girl with sports,” she said. “I knew so much about all of the Boston teams because of my dad.” grearson arrived on campus as a physical education major, but


soon shifted over to COSJ. As her skills and confidence began to catch up to her work ethic, the stories began to flow. During her senior year, grearson served as editor-in-chief of the Springfield Student newspaper, then returned home, thinking big. The time back in


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