President Schapiro's Favorite Sports Movie?

EVANSTON, Ill. --- No student guessed Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro’s favorite sports movie correctly. Turns out, it is “A League of Their Own” -- but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of 40 students and faculty attending the inaugural sports movie night at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

President Schapiro spoke to the group Monday, Jan. 13, in Louis Hall and disclosed the closely guarded answer to the contest marking Medill’s first monthly “Sports Journalism Movie Night” -- a kickoff event for the school’s new Sports Immersion program to launch this year.

President Schapiro said his favorite sports movie was the 1992 film “A League of Their Own” and even admitted being a fan of chick flicks, including another personal favorite, 2003’s popular “Love Actually,” and also the 1993 hit “Groundhog Day.”

Students had been asked before the movie night to guess President Schapiro’s favorite sports film, and the Northwestern community was invited to come watch the movie Monday. There were 75 great guesses submitted, but no student picked “A League of Their Own.”

T-shirts were raffled off instead of awarding a winner.

The contest is part of programming being created for a new Medill Sports Immersion program, mainly for graduate students, but eventually for all Medill students. Participating students will get experiences with organizations, including media and teams; travel, including a Washington, D.C., sports journalism trip in March; mentoring with distinguished sports journalism alums; access to special campus events: and opportunities to interact with sports journalism from every angle -- from the reporting to the business side.

Medill has graduated many well-known people who are now in sports journalism, but the school’s curriculum is devised to allow students to work in many fields. Medill’s new Sports Immersion program is designed to supplement the curriculum and give students specific opportunities to immerse their journalism skills in the sports world.