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Elizabeth Merrill is a fantastic sports writer, storyteller, and journalist -- no semi-this or semi-that about it. No conjecture. No hyperbole. She has the bona fides to back it up having recently earned the 2020 Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. Not enough for you? Just peruse the body of work she has produced over the span of a career at places like the Omaha World-Herald, the Kansas City Star, and now, as a senior writer at ESPN. Merrill has penned stories that have personalized the addiction struggles of former Husker Randy Gregory and documented the rise of Danny Woodhead from small college star to NFL regular. She’s told the story of how Vanderbilt honored a fallen teammate en route to the 2019 College World Series title and she’s gotten inside the mind of the late Tommy Morrison shortly before his passing. Heck, she almost made this Nebraska fan cheer for an Oklahoma Sooner -- Baker Mayfield no less. Merrill earned the Jenkins Medal, named for the legendary writer Dan Jenkins, author of Semi-Tough and the Sports Illustrated article that first christened the 1971 Nebraska-Oklahoma contest as the ‘Game of the Century,’ for her story on former Villanova women’s basketball star Shelly Pennefather. Pennefather won the Wade Trophy in 1987 as the best college player in the country. She played professionally in Japan for three years and had a $200,000 offer to continue playing. Instead, she left it all behind to become a nun, but not just any nun. Pennefather joined the Poor Clares, an order that would require that she have virtually no contact with the outside world. Merrill painted a picture of what Pennefather’s life was like before joining the convent and what it was like inside the order – all without having access to Pennefather. Merrill accomplished it masterfully according to Michael MacCambridge, the author of The Franchise and Chiefs Kingdom and a 1985 graduate of Creighton University. MacCambridge is co-chair of the Jenkins Medal jury. The award is administered by the Center for Sports Communication and Media at the University of Texas. “What distinguished Liz's story, for me, was the way she took this amazing story of extremes, of a great basketball player who finds a higher calling and makes a great sacrifice, and then humanized the subject -- to make the unthinkable somehow comprehensible -- and, over the course of the story, deepened our understanding of Shelly Pennefather and the complexities of her journey,” MacCambridge said. “In sportswriting, we try to understand what competition does to shape the human spirit, and what ineffable quality makes great athletes great -- is it something innate, something learned, some weird alchemy of intangible elements?” For Merrill, winning an award that bares Jenkins’ name and being mentioned in the company of the other nominees made it a special honor. “Dan Jenkins is the gold standard in sportswriting. I mean, I wasn't old enough to remember ‘The Game of the Century,’ but I sure as heck know the famous lede of that story, because anyone who lives in Nebraska can almost memorize it,” she said. “The people on that (nomination) list are incredible. Steve Politi writes with such an ease that it makes me want to bang my head on my keyboard; Seth Wickersham is an incredible writer who also happens to be a great reporter. And Tim Keown wrote one of my favorite stories, a piece about Mark Davis. Everything he does is magic. “I got a call that our story won, and it was a very humbling experience. Knowing the people who are on that panel, like Wright Thompson and Sally Jenkins, it was overwhelmingly cool.” Merrill was first approached about the Pennefather story by Carol Stiff, a vice president in women’s programming at ESPN. While Merrill had been charged with putting together a feature piece without access to the main subject before – including a story on Patriots head coach Bill Belichick – this story provided some unique challenges. “The thing everybody wants to know -- why would someone who had so much to offer the world make a choice like this? -- needs to be answered by the subject, who can't be interviewed,” Merrill said. “The thing you always want to do, in any story, is talk to as many people as possible. I feel like you can never do enough reporting, though sometimes I curse that thought process when I'm staring at an infinite file of notes. “Probably the best thing that happened was finding the man she contemplated marrying and having children with when she was in college. He'd never really talked about it before, but as we talked he began to feel comfortable and decided the time was right. He's a priest now, and felt as if his story about their love and respect for each other might give people a window into what that sacrifice meant, while also humanizing her.” Merrill described a collaborative environment at ESPN with the television side working with the website side. Communication goes back and forth both before and during the piece, she explained. “I've always had really good experiences working with TV, and it helps me see stories differently. I feel like I learn so much from what they do,” she said. “I'm working on a piece right now with Chris Connelly, a TV icon who does the red carpet at the Oscars and is so great on E:60. But guess what? He's also a fantastic writer. He did a piece this week on the 1970 Wichita State football team's plane crash that is a must-read. So I'm reading that, and I think about how lucky I am to be working with someone who can see things from both a TV and print perspective. And you can bet I'm going to be asking him for advice on my story if I get stuck.” Merrill, a graduate of Ralston High School and the University of Nebraska-Omaha, started her journalism career at the Omaha World-Herald before heading south on I-29 to the Kansas City Star. She made the jump to ESPN at the urging of Jena Janovy, a World-Herald alum herself and Senior Deputy Editor at ESPN. “Liz has a unique blend of curiosity, empathy, perspective, and persistence. All of that makes her an amazing reporter. She’s always been a talented writer, with a unique ear and ability to stray true to her writing voice, but it’s her reporting that so often has spelled the difference between a good story and a great one,” Janovy said. “She’s thoughtful. She relates to people well. She cares about what she does and how she does it. All of those qualities make her a beautiful storyteller.” Two 2018 stories showcase Merrill’s writing, reporting, and storytelling ability. The first – a profile of former Husker standout Randy Gregory’s struggle with marijuana. “It took maybe a year and a half to get him to talk to me, but I felt as if the story we did gave readers a window into how hard it is to fight through addiction, especially under a microscope,” Merrill said. “Gregory is mega-talented, and since he's a Dallas Cowboy, he's also very scrutinized. When Gregory finally opened up, at Japanese steakhouse, he told the story of a lost man who was bullied as a child, and isolated in the NFL's drug program.” The next was still more challenging. “One story that will stay with me forever is Parkland. The school shooting at Stoneman Douglas was one of many in 2018, and what we tried to do is take a step back and tell the story of the massive void that a victim's family and friends try to fill while the world goes on to whatever is next in the news cycle,” Merrill said. “I'll never forget talking to Debbi and Corey Hixon in a diner a few months after they lost Chris, the bedrock of the family, and, as the world would later find out, a hero who died trying to save children. I'll always remember the feeling of hopelessness I felt when Nick Dworet's parents showed me his room and the Oreos he stashed in the closet and a note he pinned on his wall with his goal of making the Olympics. I still think about that empty chair at their dinner table.” Those stories are the result of years of practice. Before ESPN, the Star, and the World-Herald, there was the Gateway, UNO’s student newspaper. “I was a political science major in college, but always seemed to do much better in English and writing classes. I got the bug after working for the UNO student newspaper,” Merrill said. “Some of the best education I got was from working at the Gateway. I started as a writer, and eventually became editor-in-chief, which is kind of an all-consuming job in which your schoolwork is sacrificed for 2 a.m. deadlines with the music blasting and a bunch of crazy kids trying to put out a paper. I'll never forget that feeling of seeing our work on the racks, or watching people reading it in the library... Even at the World-Herald, or in Kansas City, it was always a rush when the paper hit the door.” Merrill credits friends, colleagues, and mentors throughout her career for helping her grow at each stop. Dr. Michael Hilt, now the Dean of Communications at UNO, and Warren Francke, Professor Emeritus, helped push Merrill in college, along with her advisor Jim Fogarty. Janovy and former World-Herald Sports Editor Steve Sinclair were invaluable mentors at her first professional stop. “Jena challenged me to look at stories in different ways and to be more aggressive,” Merrill said. “One time, when I was on the Nebraska football beat and one of the players got in trouble, she told me I couldn't come back to Omaha until I tracked this particular player down.” At the Kansas City Star, Mike Fannin, now the President and Editor of the paper, challenged Merrill. “Mike Fannin took my writing to the next level. My first week in KC, I came up with an idea for the Sunday centerpiece -- that was a really big deal back then -- and got access to follow a (Kansas City) Chief during house arrest,” Merrill said. “I turned in the story, and proceeded to get dressed down for four hours on a Saturday afternoon about everything I missed. I spent part of that poring over my notebook and all the things I didn't include. I even called a jail to find out the exact dimensions of a cell. It was pretty eye-opening.” At ESPN, the late Jay Lovinger and his wife, Gay Daly, helped both Merrill and Janovy develop further. “They took us under their wings and showed us the importance of spending time with people, trying to truly understand what motivates them, their passion, their humanity. Jay encouraged us to talk stories out along the way, to share reporting moments, and to believe in ourselves,” Janovy said. “We’ve learned so much from so many people over the years. First at the World-Herald and then at ESPN – other writers, editors, producers, photo editors, creative design colleagues and bosses who’ve been willing o share their doubts and insecurities along with their happiness and achievements and success stories.” So what’s up next for Merrill? ESPN keeps things tight lipped on stories in development, but she was able to share a nugget or two. “I'm really excited about a couple of the stories that I hope will appear in October and November, particularly a TV collaboration with Chris Connelly,” she said. “I also have an idea that I've been trying to report out that I hope hits before the end of baseball season.”
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AuthorI am a professional communicator with experience in journalism, public relations, marketing, advertising, and technical writing. I strive to tell the great story regardless of the medium. Archives
April 2022
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