Jerry Tipton, retired sports journalist and author, visited Marshall University on Tuesday, Aug. 27, for a book signing in the campus bookstore.
Tipton is a Marshall Alumni and member of the United States Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame and Marshall University Journalism Hall of Fame.
Despite having such an accomplished career, Tipton didn’t always know he wanted to pursue a career in journalism and credited his uncle with helping him find his path.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to major in, and he suggested being a sportswriter because he knew I really liked sports, and he did not know that I’d always liked words, learning new words, wordplay and all of that sort of thing,” Tipton said.
Throughout his professional career, Tipton was always trying to improve, whether that was wanting to find good stories or finding ways to make those stories better.
In the pursuit of finding the best stories he could, Tipton found many stories that he considered to be highlights of his career.
“One of the highlights that comes immediately to mind is the so-called Christian Leitner game – 1992, famous NCAA tournament game – Leitner wins it on the last second shot,” Tipton said, “and I was just overwhelmed by the magnificence of the game. And it was intimidating to think, you know, how am I going to find the words to describe what I just witnessed?”
It was a historic game, and Tipton found himself “attempting to write the first draft of history.”
Tipton said his time at Marshall University was valuable to his career for educating him on writing and journalism. However, he also found how it affected his view of his personality.
Tipton described this new view as foundational to his career because he was somewhat introverted and was not outgoing before his time at Marshall University.
“I noticed that the star students were outgoing, extroverted and engaging, and I thought to be a journalist, you are going to have to talk to people,” Tipton said. “I had to make a greater effort in that regard to do that; that was one of the many things I learned about journalism here at Marshall.”
Following his retirement, Tipton found himself with a long career in journalism behind him and yet still more stories to tell, so he decided to start writing books.
The product of that desire was “Deja Blue: A Sportswriter Reflects on 41 Seasons of Kentucky Basketball,” which tells the stories of his experiences as a sportswriter alongside the memories and stories of more than 40 other people.
Tipton said his goal of including over 40 people’s stories and memories was to provide the book with a historical feeling all while taking the focus away from himself.
