UPDATED: Dec. 30, 2015 at 10:55 a.m.

Jack Cavanaugh wanted to do a little bit of everything his first semester at Syracuse University. Play on the freshman basketball team. Serve as a waiter in an all-girls dining hall. Sing in a glee club. Write for The Daily Orange.

“You got to give some of these things up,” Cavanaugh recalled his counselor telling him, “or you’re not going to make it back here for the second semester.”

So after realizing his dream of becoming a professional athlete was unattainable, Cavanaugh shifted his focus to journalism. He wanted to go into news, which is why Cavanaugh (‘56) majored in political science. But he also took some journalism classes and, after dabbling in several areas, became a sports writer. Cavanaugh went on to write for The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Golf and Tennis magazines and Sporting News, while also spending time as a reporter for both ABC and CBS News.

He’s covered the Olympics, World Series, Super Bowl, Masters and U.S. Open for golf and tennis, as well as 15 title fights. He’s written six books, including five in the past eight years, and is now working on a memoir about a career that includes encounters with Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. He’s interviewed Martin Luther King, Jr. and former presidents Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as Muhammad Ali.

“Writing for The Daily Orange and taking journalism classes definitely helped me become a good writer,” Cavanaugh said.

Cavanaugh still remembers some of his bigger stories, including a piece he did on legendary games between Syracuse and Colgate — one of SU’s biggest rivals at the time — at Archbold Stadium, which made it onto the front page.

But Cavanaugh’s love for literature began during a two-year stint in the Navy after he graduated from high school. On boats for several months, he passed the time reading, planting the seeds of his future journalism career.

“You can’t be a good writer without being a good reader,” Cavanaugh said.

That’s the piece of advice that he’s passed on to students for years as an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac, Fairfield and Columbia.

While he didn’t initially plan for a career in journalism, he said he has always looked forward to going to work every day.

“It’s been a good ride all the way through,” Cavanaugh said. “I’ve always liked what I was doing and I always tell my students, ‘Whatever you do, no matter if you make a lot of money, don’t do something you don’t like.’ I kind of lucked out.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the timeframe and the number of books Cavanaugh has written was misstated. He’s written five in the past eight years. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on December 14, 2015 at 9:39 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds