Current Job Title: I am currently the managing editor of GrepBeat, a media company that covers the tech scene, especially tech startups, in the Raleigh-Durham region (aka the Triangle) of North Carolina. Once the pandemic clears, I am planning to launch a private-room karaoke lounge called Croon in what I hope will be a mini-empire of such places. Stay tuned!
Before GrepBeat, I was, in chronological order: an investment banker at Goldman Sachs; a sportswriter for 12-13 years, primarily at Sports Illustrated; a comedy writer for TV/film; and a tech startup Co-Founder and COO. You know, that old drill. I imagine the sportswriter part is most relevant to this discussion. Let's just say that it's no coincidence that the Ephs had more than a dozen athletes make Sports Illustrated's
Faces In The Crowd section during my nine years there.
Williams graduation year: 1991
Sport(s) played at Williams: A little JV lacrosse and a lot of IM soccer
Degree you earned at Williams: History
How you got involved in Eph Sports Information: During the fall of my sophomore year in 1988, I picked up a few bucks by serving as a spotter for the football PA announcer, future Supreme Court clerk John Kelsh '89. It turned out that I both enjoyed and had a knack for press-box banter. That caught the ear—and eye—of that year's Sports Information Director, future Williams men's basketball coach (and current George Mason coach)
Dave Paulsen '87. He asked me to come work for him in the SID office. It sounded a lot better than the campus job I had at the time, which was working in the dining halls. I started with men's basketball for the '88-'89 season. DQ succeeded DP as SID the next year, 1989-'90, and inherited me.
What were your duties in Ephs Sports Information: I covered football, men's basketball and baseball.
Favorite Eph Sports Information memory: It's time to come clean about the record attendance figure for New England Small-College football of 13,671, which was set on Nov. 11, 1989 when Williams hosted Amherst. The Ephs pulled out a 17-14 squeaker that day to complete its first-ever perfect season at 8-0. That was my junior year, and my first covering the team for the SID office. It was definitely the biggest college football game I had been personally involved with to that point—a small sample size, admittedly. It seemed like a huge crowd, at least emotionally. But the dirty little secret is that Williams didn't really maintain actual attendance figures. Students didn't even pay to get in and nobody kept track of who entered or left. So we used to estimate attendance.
And on that day, I made the estimate. I don't recall if I knew what the record was, or even that such records were kept, but I certainly wanted it to be an epic figure (by NESCAC standards) considering the game's stakes. I thought "13,761" sounded really specific and less made-up than, say, 13,500. But to be clear, I totally made it up. I did not expect it to still be a record more than 30 years later.
I was also very fortunate that Williams football never lost during the two seasons that I covered the team—a perfect 16-0. They were the first and then second perfect seasons in school history. Obviously I never gained a yard or made or a tackle, but it made for a very fun work experience. And way, way better than the dining hall.
Fun Fact
I am the answer to the following trivia question: Who is the only winner of the Frank Deford Award who has also been a presenter?
