Stephen Smith’s journey as a sports fan, to becoming a sports journalist at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University was not an easy one. It was a journey full of internal strife and difficult career decisions.
Much like my journey, and many other sports journalists, Smith’s journey started with an extreme love of sports at a young age. Born in Topeka, Kansas, Smith had a great appreciation for sports at an early age. Following the Kansas City Chiefs, Smith became a football fan as it was accessible to him and because of his family.
“I remember every Sunday it would be Dante Hall, Trent Green, Tony Gonzalez, watching that at my neighbor’s house and growing to love the sport,” Smith said. “They never won and they were sort of a punchline. So when I was growing up, being a Chiefs fan was kind of a joke to all of the people I was friends with.”
Now with the Chiefs at the top of the NFL, vying for a rare opportunity to win three consecutive championships, Smith’s fandom has definitely changed in the past five years.
“I never would have imagined that it would get to this point,” Smith said. “That it would get to the point where you expect to be right there every year and win, which is just completely a 180 from where I used to be.”
But his fandom of a then-mediocre franchise, and staying true to his beliefs led him to where he is today.
As a long-time Chiefs fan, and now Masters of Arts student in sports journalism at Cronkite, Smith has learned to appreciate what he has and to always stay true to his beliefs, especially after many career changes.
Smith was a computer science major at first during his undergraduate program at the University of Missouri, but his heart wasn’t truly in it so he switched to being an accountant because of his father. Smith stuck with accounting for a good five years, even getting his masters in the subject before he realized that too was not for him.
“At that point I was lost,” Smith said. “So at that point I wanted to do something that I cared for.”
Smith’s family supported him throughout this journey and this led him from being lost to finding purpose. But just like his fandom of the Chiefs, his belief in himself never wavered and he never thought of just giving up.
“[My dad telling me] I think you should go for it, write a bit on the side while you’re working and take a year to devote yourself to it,” Smith said. “That really flipped the switch for me, but I still didn’t see it as a feasible thing until I started applying to schools and getting admitted, which was a big deal.”
In the end, this belief in himself led to Smith enrolling in Cronkite and believing in his abilities as a writer.
“At the end of the day, it’s driven by the pillar that sports are in my life and the belief in myself that I can write well enough to forge a career,” Smith said.
