By Joel Sanders

Sportscaster Dick Enberg's career started with an interview for a janitorial job. While attending Central Michigan University, Enberg heard from a fraternity brother that a radio station was looking for someone to clean the place for $1 an hour.

But when applying for the job, Enberg met the campus director, who asked him to read a news summary. Three weeks later, he landed the job as the weekend DJ, not the janitor.

That was the beginning of a broadcasting career that spans half a century and involves many stops along the way. One of those stops was Indiana University, where Enberg visited Nov. 9 to offer advice to an audience of students and fans.

The School of Journalism co-hosted "A Conversation with Dick Enberg" with the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Enberg earned a master's degree in1959 and doctorate in 1962 from HPER.

"Most of us like to think we're a legend in our own mind," said David Gallahue, dean of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, in his introduction. "This is a gentleman that really is a legend in his own time."

Enberg is in his 50th year of broadcasting and has covered every major sporting event from the Super Bowl (nine times) to the Olympics (four times) to the World Series. Enberg has witnessed many sporting events and historical moments, but there is one that he says changed the profession of journalism.

"Journalistically, the impact of Watergate has affected all of us," Enberg said. "I think since Watergate, it's changed how we look at our repertoires and that includes sports."

Since Watergate, he explained, aspiring journalists feel that journalism has to be something sensational and negative.

"They feel in order to be journalistic, they have to be investigative and interrogative," Enberg said. "That is part of the responsibility but it isn't the entire challenge. You don't have to dig up something to be a good reporter."

Enberg is known for inspirational pieces on athletes who have accomplished something great, often after the athlete has had to overcome a struggle in his or her life.

"Why is that not journalism?" Enberg asked. "Just because it becomes something that makes people feel good and you like that person and maybe you're inspired by their behavior and their talent, I think the tendency is that bad news sells newspapers."

Enberg has garnered many awards throughout his career as a sports broadcaster. He has earned 14 Emmy Awards and is the only person to win the national Emmy Awards as a sportscaster, writer and producer. In 1998, he became only the fourth sportscaster to be honored with a star on the Hollywood walk of Fame.

Enberg said he is often asked how to get where he is today and he responds with a simple answer.

"I don't think you can ever take enough classes in writing," Enberg said. "When you consider in your mind the people that you admire the most, whether it is in news or sports, but let's just say play-by-play, I would guess that the ones you think are at the very top are also the best writers."

Enberg has conducted his fair share of interviews with the likes of Peyton Manning and John Wooden. He said that anticipation is a key factor in developing a good storyline.

"Anticipating is key and the only way to anticipate well is to be incredibly prepared," Enberg said. "If you anticipate, you're able to follow in their train of thought rather than interrupt them with another question that jolts them off their storyline."

Enberg could still be mopping floors as a janitor, but it was one of those unexpected turns that life throws at you, and Enberg decided to take it.

"There are intersections in life," Enberg said. "When you come to an intersection and somebody dictates which way you go and sometimes they pick the better way than you had chosen. Don't be afraid to take that chance."

Read an IDS report of the talk.