Jerry Kirshenbaum

Jerry Kirshenbaum (BSJ60) was inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement in 2011.

Kirshenbaum spent 30 years at Sports Illustrated as a staff writer, senior editor, assistant managing editor, and acting managing editor. He wrote and edited stories on all major sports and was deeply involved with the Summer Olympics as a writer at the Games in Munich in 1972 and Montreal in 1976, and, after becoming assistant managing editor, as coordinator of the magazine’s extensive coverage in Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996). He also directed investigations, overseeing special reports on the Pete Rose gambling scandal and the Ben Johnson Olympic doping disqualification that were instrumental in Sports Illustrated becoming the first large-circulation publication to win back-to-back (1989 and1990) National Magazine Awards for general excellence.

Before joining Sports Illustrated, Kirshenbaum was a reporter and columnist at the Minneapolis Tribune, where he won four Page One Awards (1963-66), and was a writer in the Nation and Business sections at Time magazine (1966-69). His earliest experiences in journalism were as a reporter for the Benton Harbor News-Palladium and the Vancouver Sun during summers while he was attending Medill. Kirshenbaum has a master's degree in political science from the University of Michigan.