By Jo Ann Mitchell Brasington ’89 with questions and help from a group of Wofford student-athletes interest in careers in sports management or journalism

ESPN anchor and reporter Wendi Nix ’96, former Wofford student-body president, student-athlete and captain of the women’s golf team, visited the Wofford campus in May to emcee the BOSSCARS athletic awards banquet. Before flying back home to Boston for an assignment, she took time to talk with14 current Wofford student-athletes. For an hour and a half, Nix discussed her career path, the value of a liberal arts education, and answered questions from students interested in getting into a sports-related field. Many of the student-athletes want to pursue careers in broadcast or print journalism; others were interested in the sports side of law, management or marketing.

Nix was charming, funny, self-effacing, intelligent and candid. She answered every question and even turned the tables on the students and asked them a few questions. After the luncheon and discussion was over, students surrounded her with more questions, and she encouraged them to contact her once they were in graduate school or working if they had other questions or wanted to talk about career options.

Below is a transcript of the luncheon discussion and question/answer session:

After graduating from Wofford, Nix enrolled in the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the business-based Master of Sports Management program. It’s a program that yields primarily marketing executives, athletic directors and “front-office” staff for a variety of professional sports teams.

While in graduate school, Nix completed a 13-week internship. The experience made her realize that she wanted to make a run at doing broadcast sports journalism.

Nix’s first job was at WPDE in Florence, Myrtle Beach (near her hometown). There she covered NASCAR and high school football with a bit of news coverage thrown in. Nix is a supporter of starting in the small markets. From WPDE, Nix moved to FOX, NBC Boston and eventually to ESPN. She’s been in the business 11-12 years now.

“There’s no one right way,” says Nix. “My path was different. I’m a big believer in the Liberal Arts for undergraduate education. With that foundation, you can go a lot of different ways. It’s served me well.”

QUESTION: When did you know you wanted to become a reporter?
Nix says she knew since the fourth or fifth grade that she wanted to be a journalist. She followed an anchor and reporter who visited her school around (joking that it was her first experience as a stalker). “I was the first one in line for career day,” she says.

Even though she wanted to be a broadcast journalist, Nix still felt that a broad-based education at a smaller, in-state college was right for her. Although at times she says she felt intimidated in the world of journalism without formal journalistic training, Nix believes Wofford was exactly what she needed to get to her current level as a national sports anchor and reporter.

After Nix graduated from Wofford in 1996, she decided to give a career in sports journalism a try. She enrolled in the UMass program, learned the business side of sports, spent time interning and developing a network within the industry, created a demo tape and began working.

QUESTION: How do you deal with all of the travel?
“I’ll be honest, sometimes the travel can be a big challenge,” says Nix. “I have to look at it as a lifestyle as well as a job.”

Along those lines, she gave students two pieces of advice:
1. “Any job you’re passionate about and good at will take a lot of time. That’s just the way our society has become.” According to Nix the 9-5, 40-hour-a-week jobs have become scarce, particularly in many professions.

2. “Regardless of the circumstance, there are ways to make personal life and a rewarding career work.” People have to be flexible. “I have to work on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, but I get to be around some really interesting people, and I love that my job is never the same.”

QUESTION: What’s a typical day like for you?
Nix’s days vary, but she described a typical college football Saturday on ESPN.
“We’re on the air up to 14 hours because there are so many games across the country,” says Nix. “Because we never know what’s going to happen, we have to be prepared for everything.”

Nix typically arrives at about 8:30 am for hair and make up. All the while she’s reading and prepping to report on or discuss anticipated topics. The crew gets together at around 10 for a story meeting. Nix has a research assistant with her. She goes on air at noon, and they’ll “go solid until midnight,” possibly longer.

Otherwise, there is no typical day. Nix is on-call 24-7. She may be on her way to lunch with friends or to a dentist appointment when she gets a call that she needs to be on a plane in 2 hours. “We keep a suitcase packed,” she says referring to the reporters and camera crews of ESPN.

“I’ve been fired by my dentist because I missed or had to cancel so many appointments,” says Nix.

QUESTION: I’ve heard that sports reporting is still a “boy’s club.” Has that been your experience?
“I’ve heard that,” Nix says. She flashes a mischievous grin at the women’s soccer student-athlete who asked the question. “I’m very fortunate. Lots of women ahead of me have taken the hit, and to be honest, sometimes it’s helped because I’m a woman. In general, if an athlete knows I’m there to do a job and be professional, they don’t have issues with whether I’m male or female.”

Nix says that covering the Masters golf tournament this year gave her a taste of the “boy’s club” mentality.
“For a change, I really stood out,” she says. “Until this year, ESPN had never assigned a woman to cover the Masters, and at times I felt out of place. But, there’s no sense worrying about that. I was there to do a job, and that’s what I did… Today, women and men both have lots of opportunities in the field.”

QUESTION: What advice would you give to people considering a career in this field?
“I never had classes in journalism, so at first sometimes even understanding the jargon was a challenge. Early on, I think having a journalism background (either as an undergraduate or graduate student) would have had some advantages. Still, I think a Liberal Arts background gives students at great start (it makes a great springboard) to a more specialized graduate program.”

“I can’t say this enough, in this field internships are critical. Every job I ever had (with the exception of ESPN) came as a result of an internship. My colleagues say the same thing.”

Nix says that her Liberal Arts education makes it possible for her to write her own copy (something she always does) and helps her feel comfortable in front of the camera. She does not use a teleprompter. Her job requires a lot of ad lib. It also requires her to stay current with what’s happening not just in the area of sports but also current events. All tie back to communication skills she honed at Wofford.

QUESTION: Your job as an anchor and reporter with ESPN is so visible. What’s it like to be the focus of constant public attention?
“I’m a sensitive person, but I’ve learned to be less sensitive,” says Nix, who told a story about being proud of one of her early successes. “I was sort of bragging and someone says to me: ‘You’re never as good as they say you are, but you’re never as bad either.’ It made me stop and think. Now I realize that you don’t want to buy into the hype, but you don’t want to be scarred by the criticism either. At the end of the day, I have to be happy with the person I am. I have to be me and not worry about the criticism.”

QUESTION: What did you do or what is it about you that made you stand out… that helped you get where you are today?
Nix explained the media market system in the country and gave several examples of early rejections from some of the country’s smallest markets (Laredo, Texas, for example). She says that those small markets offer great training.

“Smaller markets are great places to learn and work out the kinks with people new to the field like you,” she says. “You may hear a hundred ‘NOs’ (literally), but then someone will see X in you, some potential that they want in their area.”

“At ESPN, everyone is at the top of their game, and 70-80 percent don’t come from a sports background. The executives at ESPN are big believers in well-rounded employees. Sports is a microcosm of our society and we don’t operate in a vacuum.”

“That’s the great thing about a Liberal Arts background. At Wofford you can’t get away with just reading the sports page. When covering sports, it’s important to know the score of the Panther’s game, but I can’t just know the score. I also have to know what’s going on around the world in business, health care and politics. I need to know the whole story and how sports fits into it.”

QUESTION: How do you find out about stories or how do you break stories?
“At ESPN, information is currency. Reporters have to have the contacts and the ability to break stories,” says Nix. “Relationship building is key. The time spent developing sources is critical. I stay in contact with a lot of people via text or email. Once you build a relationship, you check in periodically with sources…. We have a strict policy at ESPN; we cannot pay for information, and we make no concessions or compromises on interviews.”

QUESTION: You’re a South Carolina girl, but you can’t tell when watching you on TV. What did you do to neutralize your accent?
“It’s all about the vowels,” says Nix. “When I moved to New England, they made me take phonic classes with five year olds.”

After years of practice, Nix says she rarely slips, but when she does it’s because she’s tired or really upset.

“I cranked up the Southern accent at the Masters,” she says. “My producers noticed and were impressed that the people in Augusta responded better to me because I sounded like I was one of them. They’d say, ‘how do you do that?’ I’d laugh and say, ‘I’m from here. I was born with it.’”

Nix says that even when she worked her first job in the Florence/Myrtle Beach market, her producers made her tone down her accent. “On TV, they want you to be as neutral as possible.”

QUESTIONS FROM WENDI NIX TO THE STUDENTS:
Accustomed to being on the questioning end of an interview, Nix started asking the Wofford student-athletes questions.
“Why did you choose Wofford?”
“What type of internships or experiences have you had in the field?”
“Who’s interested in broadcast… print… other careers in the field?”
The questions led to more discussion of the benefit of choosing a Liberal Arts education.
“My job requires a lot of reading, writing, putting together arguments and telling stories,” says Nix. That’s why a Wofford education is so important.”

PARTING WORDS OF ADVICE to PROSPECTIVE JOURNALISTS:
“Be fair. Be objective. Then don’t be afraid to stand by what you’ve said. Be accountable for what you say. You may take some heat initially, but athletes and coaches appreciate that in the long run,” says Nix. “Own what you say.”
“Bill Belichick (Head Coach of the New England Patriots) and I have a good, working relationship based on mutual respect, but I’ve been thrown out of every exit in Gillette Stadium. I keep showing back up, and he keeps talking to me.”
“Families turn on a game after a hard week of work. Watching sports offers relief for many people. It’s fun to be a part of that,” says Nix.

FINAL COMMENT:
Nix finished by saying that she “loves Wofford. It’s great to be back.” She encouraged students one last time by saying “I need some Wofford company at ESPN.”