1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Mike Kahn dies

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Giggity, Dec 18, 2008.

  1. Derek Harper

    Derek Harper New Member

    Dan certainly captured the essence of who Mike Kahn was to so many of us, even if we're not all directly connected.

    His influence in the world of sports journalism was far reaching, and it deserves to be told and shared. Look to any major online sports media company - ESPN, Yahoo, Fox, SportsLine/CBS, and Mike's fingerprints are plainly visible. A writer he hired to be one of The Wise Guys when SportsLine was just getting off the ground, or any number of editors who have gone on to significant positions at so many companies. Well before that, an entire group of journalists who emerged from the Tacoma News Tribune along with Mike.

    He hired me out of college, and I remember in 1997 a whiteboard with a sketch of the country. He pointed out the targets for where his national network of columnists would live and become newsbreakers - in a time when it was difficult for a writer from an internet company to even get a press pass, much less an exclusive interview.

    He could barely contain his enthusiam at the possibilities, and he was determined to see them out. He brought in experienced newspaper editors, and together they trained a slew of young hires to learn the nuts and bolts of real journalism and to bring those principles to the new medium.

    Mike's energy was contagious, and it's a big reason I followed him to the Northwest to help open the west coast office 10 years ago. You couldn't help but believe Mike's vision would come to fruition. And he was only a few years ahead of the curve - a decade later, his vision is playing out at several companies.

    So many people have similar stories of how they are where they are thanks in part - or because of - Mike Kahn. Even the publisher of The Sports Xchange, the company I now work for, credits Mike for being among the first to see the need for content and helping get his company off the ground 15 years ago.

    Mike loved family, sports and food ... in some order that's all intertwined and doesn't need to be ranked. We all remember stories that began with. "You're going to Birmingham? you can't go to B-Ham without eating ..."

    The last time I saw him was at the Combine last February. We hadn't seen each other in a few months, yet the second words out of his mouth (after his assurance the Sonics would somehow stay in town, which I don't think even he believed) were the updates on his kids. Right after that, it was always a question about how my wife and I were doing ... and it was always sincere and with a smile the first second he saw you.

    Sometimes we choose to remember the best qualities of people after they have passed. But for people who knew Mike, he's easy to remember because he was simply a good, good man. And he will truly be missed.
     
  2. Greg Bishop

    Greg Bishop New Member

    First post. Short story.

    Around the same time Mike Kahn, Bart Wright and John Clayton started writing for The News Tribune, I discovered newspapers. I was living in Tacoma, Wash., at the time, and each morning before school, I’d devour the TNT sports section over breakfast.
    I studied those guys the more than I studied anything in school. I saved articles I liked for days and months and read them so many times the newsprint smeared.
    Later, when I covered the Seahawks in Seattle, I finally met Mike Kahn. I remember being unnecessarily nervous.
    We spent time talking about sports and talking about writing and arguing about sports. He told so many stories about Shawn Kemp he could have written a book by memory. He had a spot on Gary Payton imitation. He loved his job more than most people in our business.
    I remember only one time I told him something that prompted any sort of silence. It was when I told him: You’re one of the reasons I became a sportswriter.
    I’ll miss him.
     
  3. budcrew08

    budcrew08 Active Member

    From all these testimonials, it sounds as if Mr. Kahn was years ahead of his time.
     
  4. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    As proud of his kids as any dad I've known.

    Damn good journalist too, but still second-place to the above.

    Buncha sports journalists should be writing his initials and "RIP" on our sneakers about now.
     
  5. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    I've enjoyed this tribute thread to Mike.

    See ya in the great beyond, Mike, and thanks.
     
  6. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    RIP Mike.

    Never met you, but from reading these stories, I wish I had the opportunity.
     
  7. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    I hope we all are.
     
  8. I was hired by Mike for my first Internet job back in the day and have worked with him over the years. He was truly one of the nicest, most positive guys I've known.

    The tributes above are more fitting than anything I could say right now. I owe him a great deal and I'll miss him.
     
  9. ink-stained wretch

    ink-stained wretch Active Member

    No matter how many stories you break or how many prizes you win or how much you make, it is your decency, grace and humility that will be remembered.
     
  10. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Last time I heard from Mike, he was helping the daughter of a relative of a friend of a friend, who was looking for career advice....he just wanted to help.

    A sweet man with a beautiful heart that will live on in his beautiful children.
     
  11. Pete Prisco

    Pete Prisco New Member

    I have read this site for a long time, but never posted. That changed when I learned of Mike's death. He hired me at Sportsline.com a little over eight years ago. At the time, he was considered a bit of a visionary. Going to the Internet was considered a risk. But Mike always believed in it. He was passionate about it. Dan Wetzlel said it best: Mike saw the future before many of us did.

    Sometimes I look at our business and see too many friends, too many of those we work with, having their lives cut short or impacted by health issues. It makes me think back to the great line from Harry Carey: Live it up, the meter is ticking.

    Times are tough. The economy stinks. The newspaper business is falling apart, which, for someone who loved that industry my entire life, hurts a ton.

    But without our health, none of that matters.

    So take care of yourself. Mike was way too young. Len Pasquarelli, one of my good friends, is way too young for what he's going through.

    Mike Kahn lived life to the fullest. I'm sure he'd tell you to do the same.

    Live it up, the meter's ticking.
     
  12. Ira_Schoffel

    Ira_Schoffel Member

    It's fall of 1996 and a few of my college friends are working for this Internet start-up down in Fort Lauderdale. It's called SportsLine USA. They're gushing about how great it is, how cool their bosses are, and how much fun they're having.

    I'm skeptical because I've got a solid, full-time gig as sports editor of a small daily, and I'm not sure I want to risk my livelihood by signing on with an operation I've never heard of in a medium I've never really experienced. Heck, I've never even sent an e-mail.

    But after some urging from friends, I agree to visit. What's the harm? It's just an interview. If it's sketchy, I'll politely decline and go back to the daily grind.

    Then I walk into the joint ...

    Kahn greets me with his big smile and infectious enthusiasm. He tells me about all the great columnists they've lined up as freelancers ... Ratto, Ryan, Borst, Borges, Hyde and on and on ... and how they're going to hire some full-timers of their own. They're also putting together a kick-ass copydesk, of which I could be a part.

    Between bites of a Reuben at a corner deli, he shares his wonderfully absurd vision of knocking off ESPN and becoming the dominant sports site on the Web. His passion is unbridled. Then he hands me over to top assistant Steve Miller, who left a job at the Daily News to come here. His excitement is off the charts as well. This is the 20th century's Gold Rush, they convince me. No one knows where this thing is headed, but it's going to be a wild ride.

    I sign a contract that day and start work two weeks later.

    Mike Kahn and I weren't great friends. I know I disappointed him at least once. And I never caught up with him after he moved back out West. But Mike had two qualities that I hope to carry on in all of my future endeavors -- he was passionate about being the best, and he believed in this business. He might have disliked certain athletes. Called them phonies or frauds. But he seemed to maintain a child-like appreciation for sport. And he cared as much about sportswriting as anyone I've ever known.

    I don't have many regrets, but one is never really thanking Mike for giving me the opportunity to work with him and so many magnificent people. We were all better for having known him.

    Thank you, Mike.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page