Sportswriter and ESPN commentator Bob Ryan joined the Friends for our Annual Meeting on Thursday, October 8. The crowd of nearly 100 people enjoyed listening to Ryan’s personal stories of more than 30 years of covering the hometown teams and international sporting events. After graduating from Boston College, Ryan began his career with the Globe, for whom he has written about more than four decades of Boston sports and has regularly reported on the Olympics around the world.
Ryan credits his parents for nurturing his love of sports facts and figures and spent much of his youth traveling to high school and college games. He told stories about the Old Garden, gave his opinion on steroids and the Hall of Fame, crafted his own “Mount Rushmore” of Celtics greats, offered his views on the athleticism of today’s players, and shared that he had lived on Bellevue Street in West Roxbury in the early years of his marriage to his wife, Elaine.
Much of the evening centered around Ryan’s career as recounted in his recently published book, Scribe: My Life in Sports. The enthusiastic crowd warmly received Ryan’s insights, which were spiced with humor. He answered questions and signed copies of Scribe long into the night.
