PUBLISHER’S COLUMN: BEYOND THE GAME
One of the most enjoyable books I have ever had the pleasure of reading is “Beyond the Game: The Collected Sportswriting of Gary Smith.” Published by Grove Press in 2001, it features some of the finest work of the writer who built a career at Sports Illustrated (1983-2003) and is widely considered one of the great sports writers of our time.
I didn’t fully appreciate the engaging and enthralling style Smith uses in his words until I was given a copy of a story he wrote for Sports Illustrated — just several months before “Beyond the Game” was published — about a beloved basketball coach named Perry Reese Jr. The gripping story is titled “Higher Education” and tells how a Black man’s character, charisma and charm changed an Ohio community’s view on race — and life. I’ve read the story multiple times and did so again before sitting down to write this column and was reminded that Smith’s sports writing is about far more than just sports. Hence the name, “Beyond the Game.”
And he has earned multiple accolades. According to his Wikipedia entry, Smith has won the National Magazine Award for non-fiction — the magazine equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize — a record four times and has been a finalist a record 10. His stories have appeared in “The Best American Sports Writing” series a record 12 times, and he has been called by some of his literary peers “the best magazine writer in America.”
I’ve not read anyone better. Part of it is the way in which he uses his words, but it’s also because of the stories he chooses to write, and the unexpected ways those stories unfold. He’s a master of both language and empathy, with an ability to extract deep emotion that is often touching and, at times, difficult to read, because, as we know, life can be messy.
I bring all of this up only because this issue of The Courier is heavy on sports, as will be the next couple of issues to come. It’s the season we’re in, and as an editor, I have always chosen to give big coverage to the endeavors of our student-athletes; there’s just a love for sports writing that lives deep within me. In fact, there was a time in my career where I considered moving on and finding work somewhere else as a full-time sportswriter but instead chose to settle down and raise a family here in Freeman.
And while the lights of the big city are still enticing — I daydream about Minneapolis or Chicago to this day — the opportunities here are equally appealing. It’s not close to the extent in which Smith digs in, but, even in high school sports, there is an opportunity to pull out nuances and lessons that do go “beyond the game.”
Is too much emphasis placed on sports? Are our professional athletes paid too much? Does the pressure of athletics at times put an unreasonable burden on the human condition? The answer to at least two of those questions is “yes.”
But ask our student-athletes if it’s all about the wrestling mat or the basketball court, about football fields or baseball diamonds, about fairways or 400s, and they will tell you it’s about more than that.
That it really does go beyond the game.
