Mark Godich is a 1976 initiate of Delta Sigma Phi’s Beta Beta chapter at the University of Missouri. After working at numerous publications, including the trade magazine for Golf Digest, Godich currently serves as a Senior Editor at Sports Illustrated overseeing the College Football, Golf and Horse Racing sections. He resides outside Princeton, NJ with his wife, Leigh, and 12-year-old son Steven.
DSF: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
MG: I was born and raised in Dallas. My wife and I have been in the Northeast since 1990. We live just outside of Princeton, NJ, and I commute into New York City. When I’m not on the train or editing the magazine, you can usually find me on the golf course or managing Steven’s Little League baseball team.
DSF: Tell us what made you attend the University of Missouri and what your major was.
MG: I knew when I was 14 or so that I wanted to be a journalist, and I had heard a lot of good things about the journalism program at Missouri. I was a big sports fan, and one of the guys my sister went to high school with was the quarterback of the football team had gone to Missouri. I wrote him a letter and got a great reply. It sounded like the right place for me. I saved the letter and look back over it from time to time.
DSF: What made you decide to join Delta Sigma Phi?
MG: I got accepted at Missouri early on, but the university had a real housing crunch with the dorms. When I went up there, I had no place to live, so I went through fraternity rush. That’s how I stumbled upon the Delta Sig house. I got the hard sell from Bruce Loewenberg, and Bruce had told me that there was a Delta Sig alum in the journalism school I needed to talk to. That someone happened to be Brian Brooks (former national president and current Associate Dean of the Missouri Journalism school.) Brian took me under his wing from the get-go. He has been very good to me, and we remain good friends today.
DSF: Talk about your career path prior to where you are now.
MG: I always wanted to work in newspapers. I started on the news desk at the Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News and moved to sports about three months later. I did both editing and writing and was there for about three and a half years. Then I went back to Missouri for a year and a half, working as sports editor of the Columbia Missourian newspaper and as an instructor in the journalism school at the university. I went from there back to Texas to the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald, where over the next four and a half years I worked my way up to Executive Sports Editor there. From there it was off to The Associated Press for a year, and we landed in the Northeast when I was offered a job at an upstart daily sports publication called The National, which was started by Frank DeFord. The pitch was that there was enough backing to publish for three years even if we never sold an ad, but it turned out to be such an expensive proposition that we folded after just 17 months. However, in that short time I got the chance to work with a lot of top journalists; it was one of the best experiences of my career. I got into magazines at Golf Digest and became the editor of a trade publication called Golf Shop Operations. I worked there for four and a half years. Sports Illustrated called in the spring of 1995, and I have been here ever since.
DSF: Tell us more about your role at Sports Illustrated.
MG: I started as the golf editor and I helped out with the NFL. Eight months later, I took over the NFL coverage and did that for nine years. I’m beginning my third season in charge of college football, and I also handle golf and horse racing.
DSF: What essentially are your roles for the beats that you cover? Are you writing, or are you supervising the writers, and what are the busiest times for you in your role?
MG: I don’t do any writing. I’m an assignment editor and am responsible for the major editing of the stories in those three sports. I work with the various departments, including our photo and art departments to make sure that everything is coordinated. Sundays and Mondays are usually my busiest days. The magazine closes on Monday night, so on Sunday we get a lot of copy in. Sunday is a long day for us, and Monday can be too. It’s important to be in the office, because we look at a lot of pictures, as I am heavily involved in the picture selections process and the page design.
DSF: Do you have any responsibility with SI.com, or are you strictly with the magazine?
MG: Just with the magazine. Our writers do write for both the magazine and the web site, but they have a separate inside staff. I will send along some stories that don’t make it into print, but I am pretty much devoted to the magazine.
DSF: How much in depth knowledge of the sports that you covering do you need to have to do what you’re doing as a senior editor?
MG: I was a sports junkie growing up. My Dad and I were real close. We watched a lot of sports together, and I played a lot of sports. Obviously you need to be knowledgeable, and we all throw our two cents in on story ideas for other sports. For example, I don’t handle the NBA but I do watch the NBA playoffs, so I’m not bashful about pitching an idea. (When my wife tells me I watch too much sports, I have to remind her that it’s my job.) The challenge with the magazine is coming up with the fresh angle. With so much sports on TV along with all the web sites including our own, by the time we publish something from a weekend game that doesn’t get into people’s hands until Wednesday or Thursday, we need to come up with an angle that’s going to make people want to read us. We can’t just do a recap when you’ve seen highlights from that game 10-12 times on tv by the time we come out. That’s our big challenge.
DSF: Where do you see Sports Illustrated going in the future?
MG: I think people are always going to want to see the print product. We repeatedly remind our writers that we have to keep reporting, reporting, reporting; otherwise, people aren’t going to read us, no matter how many phrases you turn. I think there’s always going to be a place for Sports Illustrated, we just need to keep finding those fresh angles. I’ll give you an example: In late January, we revisited the Fiesta Bowl between Oklahoma and Boise State. We had done very little on that game, because it was played on a Monday night, and it didn’t end until 1 in the morning. A couple of weeks later I suggested that we reconstruct the three spectacular plays that Boise ran to pull off the upset. It was a fabulous reporting job, and it got a really strong response. It was a fresh angle on a game that was three weeks old, but the story had a fresh spin.
DSF: Who are your favorite teams these days? Growing up in Dallas, are you a Cowboys and Mavericks fan?
MG: Honest to goodness, while all of us at the magazine have our allegiances, you find yourself rooting for the best story each week. In fact, it’s not hard to tell how the NFL editor’s day is going each Sunday in the fall. Just listen for the screams or cheers. We have had a lot of stories die on a vine because an NFL team lost three games in a row or a player got injured, so you root for the best story each week and hope that what you have planned plays out. That said, I’d love to see Missouri win national championship before I die. At this point, I’d even settle for a Big 12 North title.
DSF: We thought it would be fun if you gave your thoughts on some of the current events happening in the sports world today.
MG: I’ll try my best.
DSF: The Barry Bonds steroids issue and breaking the home run record…
MG: That’s a tough one. I’d just say that I wouldn’t want to be in Major League baseball’s shoes.
DSF: Dirk Nowitzki winning the MVP award after struggling in the postseason…
MG: It’s a regular season award. The right guy won it. We have at least one writer on our staff with an MVP vote, and I was sending him e-mails all season letting him know that I thought Dirk deserved the award. (laughs) He was the best player on the best team, and I read somewhere that maybe this helps reinforce how valuable he was to the Mavs, because when he didn’t produce, look how they did in the playoffs.
DSF: the new NFL Commissioner’s tough stance on guys breaking the rules – the year long suspension for Pacman Jones…
MG: I think the league is doing the right thing. There is no excuse for that type of behavior, especially when you’re being paid that kind of money. There has to be accountability; hopefully it will be a wakeup call.
DSF: What is a piece of advice that you received back in college that you utilize today?
MG: Don’t be afraid to chase your dreams. I had a lot of encouragement and support from family, faculty and fraternity brothers. You can do anything you set you mind to. I have also never forgotten the advice that my dad gave me years ago. He always reminded me that the worst thing anyone can say to you is ‘no.’ So don’t be afraid to ask.
Read a post Mark made on si.com, by going to http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/baseball/mlb/specials/postseason/2004/10/22/redsox.godich/.
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