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Murray Olderman, BJ '43

What was your first job?
My first job, after World War II service (lieutenant in Military Intelligence in Europe) and graduate study in journalism at Northwestern, was as a sports cartoonist and writer with the McClatchy Newspapers (Sacramento, Fresno and Modesto Bees).

What advantages did a Missouri journalism degree give you?
The reputation of the school was an asset in getting me a job, and it also gave me the training in daily journalism that I could apply professionally from the start. I also was able to get sports cartoons published in the Columbia Missourian that ultimately led to my employment in that area of newspaper work.

Related Drawing Room: Valley Artist Remembers Athletes of the Past Featured Video: CBS2 Palm Springs A Hand in Sports History: Murray Olderman

A cartoon by Murray Olderman

What's your latest book?
Seven Locks Press (Santa Ana, Calif.) published Mingling with Lions, my recollections of experiences with the leading athletes and sports figures of the last half century, accompanied by 130 of my cartoons and illustrations. The sports people might not agree, but it is non-fiction.

Aside from your book, do you currently write for any publications? If so, what have you recently written about?
I am a contributing editor to Hwy111 Magazine, based in Rancho Mirage, Calif. (Palm Springs area), producing a long monthly feature which I illustrate, and on such varied subjects as love couplings in sports and the travails of a young man serving 15 years-to-life for a vehicular accident which killed Jilly Rizzo, Frank Sinatra's close friend. I have also written recently for the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine on 1) Lee Espinoza and the Coachella Valley Boxing Club in which an immigrant laborer from Mexico has become the Pied Piper for the youth of a community and produced boxers in world championship fights, and 2) the Palm Springs Follies, a long-running show featuring geriatric performers.

What advice would you give to current journalism students?
Make a commitment to the area of journalism in which you want to work and adhere to the standards and ethics of the profession which your professors have tried to imbue in you.

What do you do with your free time?
I play tennis, try to work out fairly regularly, read numerous publications, dabble in art and photography and computer graphics and, oh yes, answer questions from journalism students (I used to teach summer session at the University of Oregon School of Journalism).