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After nearly 50 years, longtime Louisville sports writer Rick Bozich will finally be able to leisurely attend a game.
The experienced journalist, formerly a copy editor and sports columnist for The Courier Journal, announced in June that he would be retiring from his position at WDRB-TV July 1. In his goodbye statement, he recounted years of reporting and unforgettable moments.
“I came in lugging a portable typewriter, blank paper and a bottle of Wite-Out,” Bozich wrote. “I’ll exit pushing a button on a laptop enabling people to read and respond to my work within seconds around the globe.”
Now — having witnessed Muhammed Ali’s final professional fight, feared for his life on San Francisco’s Candlestick Park’s upper deck during the October 1989 earthquake and seeing the 1992 Kentucky-Duke game’s down-to-the-second victory — Bozich said he is satisfied.
Constantly drawn to both sports and journalism as a kid, Bozich said he saw his career coming from a mile away. When he went to sporting events as a child, he was constantly interested in what happened behind the press box glass.
“When I was a kid, I was a big sports fan and I grew up in Gary, Indiana — near Chicago — and my dad would watch sports with me,” Bozich said. “He worked in a steel mill, and he would bring Chicago newspapers home every day from work, and that’s what I would read the most when I was young.”
After starting his career at the Indiana Daily Student, Bozich spent 18 months at the Anderson (Indiana) Bulletin and another 18 months in Bloomington. He joined The Courier Journal as a sports editor in 1978. Then, he reported on various topics for the Louisville Times between 1979 and 1986, spending the final five years as a sports columnist. After the Times merged with The Courier Journal, he maintained his position as a sports columnist at the publication until 2012.
With the University of Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the University of Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten’s University of Indiana just a two-hour drive away, Louisville college sports reporting was a gold mine for Bozich.
“I love college basketball, and this is the best college basketball market in the country,” Bozich said. “You have access to three great programs and three of the best leagues in the country. It was the perfect spot for me to work, and The Courier Journal embraced that.”
Indy Star reporter Zach Osterman has known Bozich since he worked at the Daily Student at the same time as his daughter. They have continued to get to know each other as Osterman himself entered the sports reporting industry.
“I don’t think there’s anything, especially in college basketball, that Rick’s never seen before,” Osterman said.
Joseph Gerth, an opinion columnist at The Courier Journal, said Bozich “could use his pen to highlight what was best about sports and to poke at things that that weren’t right — such as UK’s refusal to play UofL in basketball.”
Sports Illustrated reporter Pat Forde, who worked alongside Bozich at The Courier Journal for 17 years, said he shares many memories with him — from covering important games around the globe to squeezing into children’s-sized beds in a rental house in Barcelona for the Olympics of 1992.
“He was a great mentor, role model, a really prominent voice in the community in terms of framing all of the discussions on sports in Louisville and I learned a lot from him,” Forde said.
After his time at The Courier Journal, Bozich began his multimedia career at WDRB-TV in June 2012. He said that joining the news station allowed him to explore a new type of journalism and develop an entirely new skill set.
Osterman commented the switch likely shifted some people’s perspectives on what print journalists are capable of in the multimedia sphere.
Now that he is closing out his chapter at WDRB-TV, Bozich said he wants to spend more time with his family in retirement. With just under six hours left on his master’s degree, he also said he might finish his studies with his newfound time.
When reflecting on Bozich’s journalism career, Osterman said, “I don’t there have been many, if any, voices that have been more authoritative or more important in our business.”
Reach Ruby Grisin at rgrisin@gannett.com.
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