Sports Journalist Bob Steinfeld Traces Success Back to J-School

By Hallie Hablinski

Unlike most children who want to be a movie star one day and an astronaut the next, Bob Steinfeld had it all figured out from an early age.

“Since I can remember, I have known what I wanted to do,” says the 30-year-sports-journalism veteran.

He’s not exaggerating, either. In elementary school, the Dallas native often visited the local ABC affiliate to see legendary sportscaster Verne Lundquist, then just a rookie. Steinfeld also invited journalists to speak to his elementary classes and even got to spend a day on the job with local reporters when he was 12 thanks to his persistent phone calls.

In high school and college he never wavered from his path, making sure to take advantage of every student newspaper and internship he could.

“I always knew that to get ahead in this business you had to get practical experience,” he says. “If I was going to compete with other people who just graduated, I might as well have more experience than any of them.”

Sure, Steinfeld’s experience helped him land that first job, but it’s his talent that has kept the award-winning producer at the forefront of the industry. Just last year he won his third Lone Star Emmy Award for his coverage of the Big 12 football game between Oklahoma and Texas Tech. In 2005, he won a National Emmy Award for his work on the Athens Summer Olympics.

Steinfeld traces his success all the way back to the basics that he learned at UT, a time in his life that he says, “pretty much ranks right up there as the best time of my life.” Just as he always knew he wanted to be a sports journalist, Steinfeld always wanted to go to UT, a decision he calls a “no-brainer.”

“Here is a student who has a drive and determination and knows what he wants to do, and here’s the university that provides exactly what he’s looking for,” he says. “It was kind of a marriage made in heaven.”

And Steinfeld didn’t hesitate in taking advantage of the journalism department’s opportunities. Thanks to his high school stringbook, Steinfeld was on the Daily Texan staff before classes had even begun. His first assignment was covering Earl Campbell’s first scrimmage as a Longhorn.

“That was pretty cool that it was my first assignment and he turned out to be one of the best all-time running backs in UT history,” Steinfeld says.

Working at the Texan also landed Steinfeld his first internship. While writing a column on why college baseball hadn’t been nationally televised before, Steinfeld contacted each of the major networks, which subsequently asked for copies of the story. After reading his column, ABC offered Steinfeld a job as a production assistant.

“As a junior I’d be going around the country working for ABC sports on Saturday college football games,” he says. “One semester I was able to get credit for it, so I was getting credit for something I wanted to be doing anyway.”

Post-graduation, Steinfeld briefly worked for the local NBC affiliate, with which he had interned his senior year, and then went to work for the Dallas Times Herald, a job he secured with the help of his Daily Texan stringbook.

“You know you’re always taught to make a stringbook in your J classes,” he says. “Because they say, ‘Save your stuff, it’ll help you get a job,’ and it sure did.”

While at the Times Herald, Steinfeld worked as a freelancer for ABC and CBS, “but that wasn’t going to sustain me until I got a little more firmly grounded in that industry,” he says.

After working with subscription television service ON-TV, Steinfeld took a job with Home Sports Entertainment, now known as Fox Sports Net Southwest, where he has been producing national sporting events since the 80s. Steinfeld covers everything from the Texas Rangers and ACC Sunday Night Hoops, to the San Antonio Spurs and Big 12 College football, basketball and baseball.

Needless to say, he spends most of his time on the road. In one 21-day period, Steinfeld traveled to Tallahassee, Indianapolis, Cleveland, New York, Raleigh, Toronto, Greensborough, San Antonio and Minneapolis, with a few stops back home in Dallas scattered in between.

For those that question why Steinfeld would stay in such a demanding career for three decades, the answer is simple - he’s a sports fanatic.

“If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be at home watching the games, so I might as well be getting paid for going to them,” he says. “I just love it. I’m a fan. And I don’t look at this as a job. I mean, I want to get paid for it, but it’s fun for me.”

Steinfeld even dabbled in sports himself as a baseball player in junior high and high school, and gives this experience some credit for his ability to adequately cover the game.

“You really have to know that sport to do it well,” he says.

While he can’t say which sport he likes covering best, Steinfeld admits that covering Longhorn football is high on the list.

“Can you imagine what it would be like if you came back to Austin as a television producer and you got to produce the Texas Longhorn games that you went to as a kid?” he asks. “It doesn’t get much better than that - at least for me.”

Aside from covering his home team, Steinfeld has had many significant moments in his career - many of which were sports milestones as well. He worked on the telecasts for Nolan Ryan’s 5000th strike out and 300th win, and directed two of the 17 perfect games in Major League Baseball history.

But what many baseball fans don’t know is that Steinfeld was actually the impetus behind one of these great MLB moments. Before Cal Ripken’s final All-Star Game in 2001, Steinfeld was interviewing players he thought looked up to the renowned shortstop. In the middle of an interview with Alex Rodriguez, who was slated to play shortstop for the American League, Steinfeld suggested that Rodriguez step aside and let Ripken take his place as a show of respect. Rodriguez shrugged it off.

Days later, Steinfeld watched from home as Rodriguez took the field and pushed Ripken into the shortstop’s position, resulting in a standing ovation from the entire stadium.

“They were lauding this as the biggest, classiest thing he’d ever done,” Steinfeld says, laughing.

When Rodriguez returned to the Rangers’ home base in Arlington, Steinfeld couldn’t resist paying him a visit. In exchange for keeping his involvement in Rodriguez’s shining moment under wraps, the shortstop signed a picture of the historical moment, which reads: Bob, Great idea. A-Rod.

Even though his resume reads like a wish list for aspiring sports journalists, Steinfeld remains humble.

“Please don’t try and make it seem like I’m great or anything; I’m not,” he says. “I just think I’m very privileged. I have a career that I enjoy, I’ve been married for 26 years, I have two great kids who’ve gone on to college. I feel blessed.”

And for those looking to follow in his footsteps, Steinfeld has some advice.

“Be punctual, be honest and always give it your best effort, because there’s somebody behind you that will.”