‘It’s been a wonderful ride’: Northwest Herald sports reporter Joe Stevenson calling it a career

Joe Stevenson – who in his 35 years as a sports reporter for the Northwest Herald has been to the Super Bowl, covered future Olympians and NFL players and seen major changes along the way – is calling it a career.

Stevenson, who is turning in his reporter’s notebook Monday, began working at the Northwest Herald in 1989, the same year Tim Berners-Lee was inventing the World Wide Web.

In the decades since, Stevenson has seen technology and the internet change his career and the newspaper business. When he was first starting in journalism, he would sometimes have to write out the story then relay it over the phone word-for-word to someone in the newsroom.

“It was horrible to read, and it was horrible. It was even worse to be on the other end trying to take it,” Stevenson said.

Now when he covers football games, Stevenson just uses his phone as a hotspot and files the story from his car.

Some of the best athletes Stevenson said he has covered over the years include former Johnsburg star C.J. Fiedorowicz, who went on to play in the NFL for the Houston Texans; Marian Central offensive lineman Bryan Bulaga, a Super Bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers; and Jacobs graduate Evan Jager, a silver medalist in the 2016 Olympics in the steeplechase.

“I remember when he came in as a freshman [at Jacobs], and they were like, ‘Watch this Jager kid. He’s going to be special,’ ” Stevenson said. “Five years later, six years later, he’s a pro.”

In addition to covering local sports, one of the highlights of Stevenson’s career was going to Super Bowl XLI in 2007, when the Bears lost to the Indianapolis Colts at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Stevenson was tasked with sharing fan stories. At first, he admitted, he really wanted to cover the game, but he found the fan stories better.

“I was walking around South Beach just looking for Bears fans to talk about the Super Bowl,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson’s knack for finding a unique story was second to none.

“Joe cares, and he’s endlessly curious,” former Northwest Herald sports editor Kyle Nabors said. “It didn’t matter if he was covering the Bears, a high school athlete or a 95-year-old who still played in a local golf league, those traits always meant Joe was going to come back with something great.”

And Stevenson’s ability to connect with anyone he talked to always came through in the stories he wrote.

“Joe has always focused on people,” Shaw Local News Network Bears beat reporter Sean Hammond said. “The game might be interesting, or the drama of a deep postseason run, but Joe always understood that it was the people – coaches, players, managers – whose stories he was telling. Joe can talk to anybody. He’s so approachable, and I think that’s what made it so easy for people to tell him their stories over the years.”

The story Stevenson said he wrote the most about in his career – although it happened decades before he started working at the Northwest Herald – was the 1952 fairytale Alden-Hebron boys basketball team.

The Giants filled gymnasiums anywhere they went and became the smallest school ever to win an Illinois state championship with an enrollment of 98 students. The players’ improbable state championship that year is legendary, and Stevenson’s reporting helped make sure it won’t be forgotten.

Stevenson attended many of their reunions and got to know the players well over the years. In 1999, Stevenson grabbed lunch with some players from the team.

“It was mesmerizing, just sitting there listening to them tell stories,” Stevenson said. “Who ever did anything like that? Nobody.”

That connection and intimate knowledge of McHenry County sports Stevenson accrued over 35 years will be impossible to replace.

“Joe has a memory like a steel trap,” Shaw Local copy editor Lester Johnson said. “He is a resource that will be missed. His historical perspective of McHenry County and high school sports is second to none. We will all miss his knowledge and ability to connect the past to what’s happening now. McHenry County is losing one of its real gems.”

“I’d wager no one has enjoyed watching local sports more than Joe,” Nabors added.

Stevenson’s passion for sports came early. He grew up in a sports family in Illinois and Missouri, and his dad was a basketball coach. English was his strong suit in high school. He always was a prodigious reader of sports news and the newspaper.

He attended Northeast Missouri State, now Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, studying mass communications and then got his start in journalism at the Macomb Journal. He said it was “a great learning ground” covering over a dozen high schools, as well as Western Illinois University.

He met his wife, Beckie, while he was working in Macomb, and then he worked at the Quad Cities Times as a sports copy editor.

But Stevenson wanted to write rather than copy edit. Beckie, who retired as a physical education teacher at Crystal Lake South High School at the end of the school year, is from the area. Stevenson said the Northwest Herald provided an opportunity for him to write and for the couple to be closer to her family.

During Christmas of 1988, he reached out to Chris Juzwik, then the sports editor at the Northwest Herald, not expecting anything to come from it. Juzwik invited him in for an interview, beginning Stevenson’s legendary career at the paper.

Stevenson quickly became a trusted source in the community.

“As much as this community appreciates what Joe has done over the years, most people probably don’t realize the void he will leave,” Shaw Local copy editor Tom Clegg said. “Joe’s ability to reach back into his mind to pull out some tidbit of information about an athlete, coach or game from 20, 30 years ago is amazing. It’s that depth of storytelling that he brings that can’t be replaced.

“Joe has never lost his passion for his job. It’s obvious every time he comes into the office after a game. He doesn’t just sit down and start writing. He always wants to tell everyone about what he just saw and how exciting it was.”

And there isn’t anybody more likable.

“When I first started working with Joe 25 years ago, I thought, this guy cannot be real,” Johnson said. “I was looking for the crack in the armor. Is this an act? Nobody is genuinely this good of a person, nobody is liked by everybody. But Joe is the real deal who is respected and revered by all. He is one of the best people I know.”

Stevenson offered advice for aspiring sports writers or anyone breaking into the business.

“Always be as fair as you can. You know, we’re covering high school sports. It’s not life or death, it’s supposed to be fun,” Stevenson said. “Be fair, be compassionate, be friendly and people will respect you for that.”

In retirement, the Stevensons plan to move to Florida to be closer to their daughters Lexi and Tori. He wants to get back into lifting weights and improve his pickleball skills. He didn’t rule out a return to covering sporting events.

“It’s been a wonderful ride here,” Stevenson said.