THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013
CAMPUS
PAGE 7A
ERIN BREMER/KANSAN
Sports journalist Frank Deford speaks to the audience after receiving the 2013 William Allen White Foundation National Citation on Friday.
Sports Illustrated journalist receives award at University
EMILY DONOVAN
edonovan@kansan.com
Celebrated sports journalist and author Frank Deford received the William Allen White Foundation National Citation, the School of Journalism's annual award. In addition to discussing his career and accomplishments, Deford, 74, commented on the dawn of the digital age and how the Internet has changed the face of journalism.
As a sports journalist, Deford has a 50-year tenure with Sports Illustrated, has worked with multiple sports magazines and newspapers and is a regular contributor to NPR and "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel." Two of his 18 published books, including both fiction and non-fiction, have been made into feature-length films.
"I knew that I wanted to be a writer almost from the day that I learned how to write," Deford said. "I found out it was something that I could do well — no different than someone who found out they can run fast and thought, 'Gee,' I ought to go out for the track team."
Journalists hoping to follow in his footsteps, however, will have to find a technologically-adroit path. Deford said. Modern journalists, he thinks, must be more curious, flexible and prepared to explore all mediums and tactics.
"The Internet has just made everything different from what it was once upon a time? Deford said.
Deford said he fell into his sports writing career. It was the quality writing more than the subject matter that attracted him to Sports Illustrated Magazine. Although he enjoys games as a fan, he thinks the people and background stories make sports interesting.
"The wonderful thing about sports writing is that it's a great subject to write about," Deford said. "Sports is drama. Sports is glamour; interesting characters. It gives you so much as a writer."
Deford's most personal work is "Alex: The Life of a Child," a memoir chronicling the life of his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis in 1980. He describes the book as a searing personal experience and successful in that it allowed his daughter to be celebrated by so many people and helped the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
"Everything pales beneath that," Deford said. "Of course, it was based on the greatest tragedy that can possibly be, which is the death of a child, but the book itself and the subsequent movie that was made from the book was indisputably the best thing that I ever did, and certainly the most important thing that I ever did."
ERIN BREMER/KANSAN
Edited by Elise Reuter
Frank Deford, author and commentator, meets audience members and signs autographs after receiving the 2013 William Allen White National Foundation Citation on Friday.
The audience gathers for a book signing and meet and greet with Frank Deford after the award ceremony on Friday.
ERIN BREMER/KANSAN
When English lecturer Megan Kaminski asked Thompson to be a reader at the Undergraduate Reading Series, Thompson quickly agreed.
"The Undergraduate Reading Series is an opportunity for writers to come together and become a community," Thompson said. "It's not just me in the audience meeting an author; it's me being the person the audience is listening to."
ALLISON HAMMOND
ahammond@kansan.com
The Undergraduate Reading Series is a monthly event in which undergraduate writers recommended by creative writing professors can share their work. At each event, writers stand at the podium and, for 10 minutes, share their writing. Kaminski created the series a few years ago.
Pen in hand. Shannon Thompson disappears into her character. She transforms the previous evening's night terrors into a science fiction tale. She copes with pain from personal experiences by putting it into her writing. Thompson, a senior from Leawood studying English, has been writing seriously since she was 11 years old. She published a novel when she was in high school and wants to continue writing professionally.
Student writers share work publicly
CAMPUS
Kaminski said she hopes audience members enjoy themselves and become inspired to think differently through creative writing.
"We have all sorts of talented students who are starting to move their writing beyond being students and into being professional writers, so it gives students a chance to practice and have experience with a really important part of being a writer, which is sharing your work with an audience," Kaminski said.
The next Undergraduate Reading Series event is scheduled for March 12 at 7 p.m. in the English Room of the Kansas Union.
Last Wednesday, Thompson took to the podium and shared non-fiction, poetry and fiction pieces with the audience. She shared her words and took another step toward being a professional writer.
"I think the thing that makes this event remarkable is it's really about the student work; it's a moment for students to say this is what I feel about myself and what I want to share about my experience at KU and as a human being in this world," Kaminski said.
NEW ORLEANS — Gunshots erupted in a crowd of bead-wearing, drink-carrying late-night revelers on Bourbon Street during the countdown to Mardi Gras Saturday night, wounding four people and sending bystanders running and screaming. Hours later on Sunday, though, the same stretch was packed with partners who said they weren't letting the violence dampen their fun.
In a video taken by a witness Saturday night and released the next day, the shootings are preceded by footage of people standing shoulder to shoulder in New Orleans's famed tourist district, with some holding green plastic cups and wearing gaudy hats or masks. A section of the frame highlighted by police shows people speaking with angry expressions.
Edited by Brian Sisk
CRIME
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Louisiana State Police stand near the 400 block of Bourbon Street in the French Quarter in New Orleans on Sunday.
Four wounded in Mardi Gras shooting
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police said in an email that the video depicts an argument involving one of the shooting victims and the suspects. Two men are seen leaving the argument and returning with a third, then approaching the victim as at least one of the suspects begins shooting, according to police. Four shots are heard in rapid succession, followed by screams as some in the crowd stagger into one another and a nearby wall. A man whom police identified as one of the suspects is
The shooting came on the last weekend of partying before Mardi Gras, the celebration that is the signature tourist event of the year in New Orleans. And for thousands, the partying continued despite the shooting. Parades rolled under cloudy skies Sunday before crowds of onlookers, though the shootings were on the minds of some revelers.
"It was very disappointing," said New Orleans resident Carol Redmann-Bailey as she watched Thoth roll by. "I was disappointed and sad, but it seems like Bourbon Street stayed open. ... Let the good times roll."
shown walking through the crowd with his arm extended as the gun-shots are heard, though it's difficult to make out a weapon.
Police said Sunday that they were seeking the three men.
The shootings wounded two males and two females. One male victim hit in the abdomen, thigh and pelvis was in guarded condition Sunday after surgery the previous night, New Orleans Police spokesman Frank B. Robertson said. The second male was shot in the buttocks, one female was shot on the chin and right foot, and the second female was shot on the toe, according to Robertson's statement. Those three were in stable condition. No ages or names were released.