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Wendell Barnhouse: “It’s the Greatest, Craziest Game I’ve Ever Covered.”
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Wendell Barnhouse recalls the pressure of trying to find the right words in the immediate aftermath of the famous Duke-Kentucky basketball game. The overwhelming magnitude felt on press row at that 1992 NCAA tournament classic still lingers. That’s one of many anecdotes Wendell shares in this episode from his three-plus decades as a national college basketball and football writer. Hear about traveling to 27 cities in one season, how Bob Knight made a telephone jump, why Bill Snyder made a call with a surprising reaction, and where Wendell had to write from as a Fiesta Bowl erupted with Boise State’s trick plays. Wendell’s tales from his 50 years in the business also include typewriters, an intimidating first Major League Baseball game, waging an old-fashioned newspaper war alongside legendary sports editor Dave Smith, and finding himself in a unique argument with the copy desk on deadline.
Barnhouse was a media fixture on the national scene of college sports for more than 30 years, beginning in the mid-1980s. After three years as assistant sports editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Wendell became that newspaper’s national college basketball writer during the 1985-86 season, which concluded with the Final Four being held in Dallas. He added national college football to his duties in 1994 and covered both beats – as well as writing a television-radio column – until his 25 years at the Star-Telegram ended in 2008 with the acceptance of a buyout. Wendell served as president of the United States Basketball Writers Association in 1995. He covered 26 Final Fours, 343 NCAA men’s tournament games, two women’s Final Fours, and 14 college football national championship games.
Wendell grew up in Columbia, Missouri, where his first journalism job was a summer part-time gig at the Columbia Daily Tribune in 1972. A year later, he was hired as the sports editor (one-person staff) at the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post. Wendell spent four years as a sports reporter for the Quincy (Ill.) Herald-Whig beginning in 1974. He joined the sports copy desk at the Arizona Daily Star in 1979 for one year, then spent 18 months at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he served as assistant sports editor. He moved to Texas in 1981 to edit sports copy and layout pages for the Dallas Morning News. That led to his job in 1983 at the Fort Worth-Star Telegram, where he eventually returned to writing. Wendell worked as a correspondent (writer, TV/video host) for the Big 12 Conference from 2008 until 2015. He then freelanced for seven years, including one season of covering college basketball for The Athletic, before retiring in 2022.
Follow him on Twitter: @WBBarnhouse
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