Hofmann ’08 Continues Impressive Sports Writing Career

Rich Hofmann ’08 has been one of the high-profile reporters covering the Philadelphia 76ers over the past decade, first for PhillyVoice.com and then for The Athletic. He now works for a new media company called PHLY Sports, where he writes a daily newsletter focusing on the traditional "Big Four" Philly sports teams (with some Union mixed in there, too!) and appears on various podcasts. Hofman recently came to campus to speak to students interested in journalism and broadcasting and answered some questions:

I got to cover Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis. While I am still very much an Eagles fan, I did my best to keep it cool and professional while covering that game. To be in that locker room, with all the celebrations and players dancing to "Dreams and Nightmares"? I’m not sure any experience will top that, especially since my job that night was to ask everyone about “The Philly Special.” While there have not been too many deep playoff runs for the local basketball team, there were plenty of stories I was proud about. To me, the best stories were when I could link something happening on the court to something that was going on behind the scenes.

There was nothing more difficult than being a freshman at the Prep and having to juggle Latin, Math, and Science while doing whatever extracurriculars I was up to. In retrospect, time management is probably a big thing. Once you get to college and even professionally, you tend to have more free time.

I played on the basketball team and during my senior year, we upset Roman Catholic in the playoffs and got to play at the Palestra. That was awesome. Outside of that, I think the experiences I remember most are goofing around with my friends before class, during lunch, after school, or whatever. My friends and I used to have an intricate game during our free period that involved flipping water bottles at a cafeteria table. It is the small moments like those accumulated that led to friendships.

Too many to count. Speedy Morris and Joe Donahue, who coached the freshman team but who also taught me for two years of Religion. Coach Wags, my freshman football coach, was just a great guy. Father Skechus, who taught me for two years of Science. Andrew Whelan, who taught Journalism my senior year. And shout-out to Mr. [Joe] Coyle, who taught one of my favorite classes (Censorship). For the most part, I appreciated that Prep teachers treated me with respect...especially as I got older and slightly more well-behaved.