Kevin Blackistone

Kevin Blackistone
Blackistone in 2012
Born	(1959-10-17) October 17, 1959 (age 57) Washington, D.C.
Education	Northwestern University, '81 B.S., Journalism
Occupation	Sports columnist Radio host Television host Professor

Kevin Bruce Blackistone (born October 17, 1959) is an American sports journalist and professor for Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, as well as a frequent panelist for ESPN's Around the Horn and for Comcast's Redskins Postgame Live. On radio, he appears as a frequent guest co-host on the Sports Reporters on DC's ESPN980. As of March 20, 2017, Blackistone has 266 wins on Around the Horn.

Blackistone was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Hyattsville, Maryland. He is a graduate of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School.

Blackistone started his career in journalism as a city side reporter at The Boston Globe newspaper in 1981, after graduating from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. In 1983, he wrote for The Chicago Reporter, a monthly investigative magazine on Chicago's racial and social issues. In 1986, Blackistone joined The Dallas Morning News as a reporter in the City section; he later moved to the Business section covering economics, and the Metropolitan section covering city events and issues.

After covering Nelson Mandela's U.S. tour in 1990, moved to SportsDay to cover sports business and write columns. A year later, he became a full-time SportsDay columnist. He continued until September 2006, when Blackistone was one of 111 journalists to accept a buyout offer from the News, forcing his departure from the newspaper on September 15, 2006. Editor Bob Mong, in an article on the buyouts, wrote of Blackistone: "His thoughtful and probing journalism almost always stimulated response from readers, and, in this hyper-busy world, that's saying something."