Home

Director's Note

News

Features

Alumni/Students

IJ staff

Contact Us

Professional in Residence
JOE DRAPE
BY SHAWNA MCDONALD

A nursing home fire was the subject of Joe Drape’s first story. Drape, now an award-winning sports reporter for The New York Times, spent seven hours working on the eight-paragraph story.

“I know where you guys all started,” he said as he “regaled” University of Iowa journalism students with tales of his early career.

An English major from Southern Methodist University, Drape started as a night cops reporter at The Dallas Morning News, then became a national correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now covers national college football, basketball and horseracing for The Times.

Drape’s transition from news to sports coverage came as a result of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wanted someone who could integrate news and sports.

“Like pitchers who have four pitches, all reporters must be able to do everything,” Drape said. Sports reporting is changing, he said. Game stories aren’t game stories anymore.

“You have to focus on a moment in time and paint a picture,” Drape said. “Every-one gets the same stuff. It’s how you weave it.”

At The Times, Drape writes 240 bylines per year. He is expected to be in the paper almost every day.

When he gets a day off, which is rare, Drape tries to stay away from sports. A co-worker once asked him to go to a Knicks game on one of those days.

“That’s like asking the postman to take a walk on his day off,” he said.

Drape has had the chance to go back to news reporting, but chose not to. Sports are where he found his niche.

“I can write a game story in my sleep,” he said.

In his career, Drape has progressed from slaving over an eight-paragraph story, to writing stories in his sleep. He started out like most students, doing anything he could to get clips, internships and to be heard.

Now he’s at The Times. His calls get returned in 30 seconds. Everyone knows who he is.

“Don’t think you’re going to leave the UI and become king of the world,” Drape said, “But, challenge yourself, be in deep water, read books, become a better writer and anything is possible.”