Uphill by Jemele Hill

Author:Jemele Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

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Eventually, I grew out of being a terrible columnist by putting way less pressure on myself. I was still cognizant of the fact that as the only Black female sports columnist at a daily newspaper in the country, I couldn’t afford to fail. But I was also driven by wanting to be an example for other Black women in the business and for those considering a sportswriting career. I couldn’t give up just because I had some growing pains. Other black women and girls were watching.

Eventually, I started to find my voice. I was fortunate to have two incredible editors at the Sentinel whose support was key during my awkward, anxiety-ridden columnist phase. One being John Cherwa, my primary editor. We immediately clicked. He believed in my promise, even though he knew I was still coming into my own as a newer columnist. He gave me the confidence I needed to be myself when I wrote, he helped me think critically about the message I wanted to deliver to readers, and he wasn’t afraid to challenge me. When I would push back on something he had suggested, he never took it personally. And he was gracious enough to let me win an argument or two.

The other person instrumental to the discovery of my voice was Van, who hired me. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t know anything about Van before I worked at the Sentinel, but once I told other journalists that he was in charge of the sports department, most were envious that I worked with such a legend.

Van was born to be in newspapers. He’d been in sports journalism since he was seventeen years old, which is when he amazingly became sports editor at the Ocala Banner. He worked in some of the biggest markets in the country, and everywhere he went, he left his mark. He was managing editor of the National, a New York sports tabloid that lasted just fifteen months but will be forever etched into sports journalism history. There aren’t many times in this business that a publication is granted unlimited resources like the National. Some of the biggest names in journalism worked there—the late Frank Deford, Dave Kindred, Chris Mortensen, my former mentor Johnette Howard, and many others. Van was the perfect fit for such a fearless, ambitious endeavor.

Van lived life fearlessly and I loved that about him. He didn’t mind being the loudest, the drunkest, the most passionate, or the most argumentative. He loved gambling, and even took some of us young writers on the staff to the dog track a few times to teach us how to bet on the dogs, a unique skill I never imagined I’d acquire.

Van was diagnosed with cancer two years before I came to the paper, and while I was there his health deteriorated to the point where he was no longer able to come into the office. But a lot of the staff would still get together with Van for beer and wings—his favorite things outside of his family, gambling, and newspapers.

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