Celebrating a Cover Story: How the “Grand Sport of Golf” Helped Integrate a Divided Denver
On the cover of Denver’s Westword magazine this week is an excellent article written by my friend Dave titled, “Changing Course: How the “Grand Sport of Golf” Helped Integrate a Divided Denver.”
Honestly, I think you should just go ahead and read it because it’s certifiably excellent long-form journalism that has already won the 2024 Coyne Prize celebrating the best storytelling in golf, but I did want to share a few specific things that I like about it:
It is expertly researched
Dave sets the plight of two Denver golfers seeking equality, Judge James Flanigan and Jerome Biffle, against the backdrop of the broader Civil Rights movement, creating a compelling narrative while simultaneously explaining its historical significance.
I think part of the reason this is so effective is because Dave put in a lot of work conducting interviews and reviewing source material to put the full picture together for himself, and because through his detailed reporting and vivid writing, well-rounded figures of Flanigan and Biffle emerge.
Plus, the article is full of striking archival images that ground you in the history being recounted, creating an effect that feels cinematic, which I think is appropriate given the gravity of the narrative.
It’s really cool to see your friend’s work all over town
Westword is a free weekly newspaper in Denver, a reminder of the late, beloved Boston Phoenix, and you can find it for distribution all over the place. Kelly & I keep running into it by accident wherever we go, which is a blast.
Perhaps people with famous friends feel this way all the time, but I have really enjoyed walking into all kinds of places and seeing a stack of magazines with a name I recognize on the cover.
Basically, if you need a hype man, I think this means I’d make a great hype man.
Shameless self-promotion: Dave accepted my feedback
When I heard that Dave was working on an article, I offered to read it and share any constructive feedback. He was gracious enough to let me, and he took feedback from me and a few other confidants and interpreted it (in ways even better than my recommendations) to produce his award-winning final draft.
I don’t say this to celebrate myself or oversell my contributions to Dave’s accomplishment, but instead to celebrate the practice of editorial collaboration. I’ve been editing things professionally and for fun for a long time, and I have a lot of reverence for the act of getting an outside perspective.
First of all, it takes a lot of courage to put something you’re working on out into the world and ask people for their honest opinion, not just their praise. But I find it’s almost always helpful to get a trusted opinion whether you use it, reject it, or synthesize it with something else you’re thinking. Hence, the constant act of being vulnerable and asking for feedback, then seeing it for the gift that it is.
That’s why when I wrote the longest story I’d ever written I was eager to share it with people, and I was grateful that Dave was one of the first to read it and send along things he noticed that might help make it better.
If you’re working on something cool and you need a Professional Sounding Board, I think I make a good one.
And if you want to read something cool that Dave made, check it out at www.westword.com/news/changing-course-how-the-grand-sport-of-golf-helped-integrate-a-divided-denver-40804208.
Do you need a Professional Sounding Board? jed@kindandfunny.com.