Speakers
The Diversity Sports Media Institute welcomes these speakers:
David Aldridge
Sports announcer David Aldridge is a reporter for Turner networks TNT and TBS. He also frequently appears on ESPN’s SportsCenter and NBA Fastbreak.
He has covered many monumental events in sports, such as the Olympics in Barcelona, the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup playoffs, the World Series, tennis championships and the Indianapolis 500. Aldridge has interviewed some of the world’s top athletes, including LeBron James after the 2010 All Star game and the entire Olympic basketball Dream Team of 2004.
Aldridge previously worked as a reporter and columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and, for eight years, as a reporter for ESPN.
Tom Crean
Tom Crean is the head coach of men’s basketball at Indiana University, where he is working to rebuild the program by recruiting one of the top 10 classes in the country for 2009.
After graduating from Central Michigan in 1989, Crean went onto being the assistant coach at Michigan State, Western Kentucky, and Pittsburgh. He eventually became the head coach of Marquette University, where he coached NBA all-star Dwyane Wade, creating a new benchmark for the program.
During his tenure, he won a conference championship, made six postseason appearances in the NCAA tournament and led Marquette to its first Final Four appearance since 1977. Also, Crean was chosen as one of the eight coaches for the men’s USA Basketball national team.
Ron Hunter
For the past 15 seasons, Ron Hunter has coached the IUPUI men’s basketball team. He won the program’s first-ever Mid-Continent Conference regular season title in 2006 and its first NCAA berth in 2003. He is the two-time league coach of the year and had eight consecutive seasons with a .500 record or better.
In 2007-2008, he set a school record with 15 Mid-Continent Conference victories and an untouched 15-0 record on its home court, The Jungle. He gained national attention by coaching barefoot to raise awareness for Samaritan’s Feet, a group that provides shoes for children. Hunter already has acquired over 200,000 pairs of shoes, far exceeding his goal of 40,000 pairs.
Fred Mitchell
Since joining the Chicago Tribune in 1974, Fred Mitchell has covered the Cubs, Bulls and Bears beats, and now co-authors the Around Town column with David Kaplan. He also appears regularly on Chicago television and radio. For the past 16 years, he has been a Hall of Fame voter for the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Mitchell, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Gary, Ind., has written 10 books, including biographies with Bears Hall of Fame halfback Gale Sayers and Cubs Hall of Famers Billy Williams and Ryne Sandberg. Mitchell also wrote Playing Through with Earl Woods, the late father of Tiger Woods, and Then Ditka Said to Payton with former Bears lineman Dan Jiggetts.
Isiah Thomas
Isiah Thomas was one of the greatest small men to ever play professional basketball. After attending Indiana University, he went on to be one of the best players in NBA history. He was the fourth player in history to amass more than 9,000 assists and became the Detroit Pistons franchise’s all-time leader in points, assists and steals. He was named the NBA Finals MVP in 1990 and was elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.
After his impressive NBA career, he became part owner and executive vice president for the Toronto Raptors and a television commentator on NBC. He eventually got back onto the court as the head coach of NBA teams Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. Currently, Thomas is the head basketball coach of Florida International University.