Patrick Zier

I am a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and have covered sports for newspapers for more than 60 years. I have worked for the Oshkosh (Wis.) Daily Northwestern, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville), the Atlanta Constitution, and The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.). As a beat writer, I have covered various professional and college teams, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Georgia Bulldogs, and Auburn Tigers.

I have attended more than 30 Super Bowls, the World Series, and major bowl games, including the Orange, Sugar, and Cotton Bowls. In addition, I covered NASCAR for many years and have reported on most major races, including the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Charlotte World 600, and Darlington Southern 500.

I have also had the privilege of covering historic sporting events, such as the game where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record and the Muhammad Ali–Jerry Quarry fight, which marked Ali’s return to boxing after being banned for refusing to be drafted. While at The Ledger, I spent a year working in news and was honored with the 1971 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for “outstanding coverage of the problems of poverty and discrimination,” presented by the Kennedy family in Washington, D.C.