http://www.accd.edu/sac/j-p/boast3October.html
Covering the
Spurs was a dream former journalism student Johnny Ludden made come true through his studies at San Antonio College.
"I knew I wanted to be a sports writer ever since I was a sophomore in high school," San Antonio Express-News reporter Johnny Ludden said Sept. 8, offering words of motivation to a group of journalism students at a Brown Bag lunch in Room 209 of Loftin Student Center.
Ludden is now in his ninth year covering the San Antonio
Spurs for the Express-News, and he writes about 300 bylined stories each year.
"I've written for these guys so long that it becomes difficult," Ludden said. He occasionally finds himself plagiarizing from his own previous stories because of the number of
Spurs articles he has written.
"This was my dream job as a kid. I grew up in San Antonio and always wanted to cover the Spurs," Ludden said. "I'm covering the most successful period in the
Spurs franchise history."
After graduating from John Marshall High School, Ludden enrolled here from 1989 to 1991, earning first the sports editor position and then editor of The Ranger.
"Professors here helped me get my first job at the Express," Ludden said. In 1991, he transferred to the University of Texas in Austin where he began writing for the student newspaper, The Daily Texan. He served as sports editor and managing editor there. In 1995, he won an internship at the Washington Post.
"When you start out, you always get these horrible assignments," Ludden said, telling the students about a feature story on synchronized diving that he had been assigned. Ludden was eventually offered a newspaper design job at the St. Petersburg Times, but instead decided to work the design desk at the Washington Post. Four or five months later, Ludden received a call from the Express-News and was asked to return to San Antonio to cover college football. Having prior knowledge that he would be assigned to cover the San Antonio
Spurs after a couple of years, he accepted the position.
"I started covering the
Spurs in the lockout season," Ludden said. He recalled his earlier meetings with Gregg Popovich, the head coach of the Spurs. "Pop could be pretty intimidating at first when I started covering the team."
Students were excited to hear about some of the many perks that a journalism career can offer, such as travel and celebrity acquaintances. Because the
Spurs have so many players from other countries, Ludden has had the chance to travel to Argentina, France and Italy. Ludden notes there is a downside to so much travel.
"I spend about a third to half of my year in a hotel room."
Needless to say, a telephone conversation with
Tony Parker is not at all uncommon for Ludden.
"When I'm on the road I can sit through everything," Ludden said, explaining how he gets more one-on-one time with
Spurs team members during travel. "If you cover an NFL team, you're probably only going to talk to the quarterback once a week," Ludden said.
After nine years, Ludden has had the opportunity to gain the team's trust, learning more about the team than is written in his stories. When asked to impart any juicy, off-the-record stories concerning the Spurs, he responded with humor.
"I always joke that I'm saving them for the book," Ludden said.
Story by Jonathan Munson, COMM2311 student