Diane Pucin: “It Was All Tonya, Tonya, Tonya, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy.”

Press Box Access: A Sports History Podcast

Diane Pucin recalls with pride and joy how the sports calendar served as the rhythm of her life for nearly 40 years. Bob Knight throwing a chair. Jimmy Connors sending the U.S. Open crowd into a frenzy. The distinct sound of Pete Sampras’ racquet when he hit a tennis ball. An emotional Dan Jansen finally winning a gold medal. Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding going full soap opera. Pucin tells us what it was like to be at these moments and chronicle them. She also discusses breaking barriers for female sports journalists. Shame on Jim Fregosi. And Diane shares her 9/11 experience, including what nearly happened to her on that horrific morning.

Pucin covered multiple Olympics, Super Bowls, Final Fours, World Series, all four major tennis tournaments, college football bowl games, and the Tour de France. She was a sports columnist, sports media critic, and an Olympic and tennis writer for the Los Angeles Times from 1998 to 2014. She had previously worked 12 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where from 1986 to ’98, she covered Olympics, college basketball, tennis and became a columnist. That paper nominated her coverage of the Barcelona Olympics for the Pulitzer Prize. In Philly, she also won awards for column writing and a first-place award from the Associated Press Sports Editors for a game story. From 1978 to ’86, Diane worked at the Louisville Courier-Journal, where she was a beat reporter on Indiana University football and basketball. She also was a sports reporter at the Cincinnati Post, as well as the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer.

Pucin graduated from Marquette University in 1976.

Follow her on X: @DianePucin

Fun fact: Diane’s husband, Dan Weber, is a longtime sportswriter and was my first professional editor in 1987 at the Kentucky Post in Covington, Ky.

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