The world through the eyes of "Texas" Tim Cowlishaw- Point 1

Tim Cowlishaw is starting to have his name thrown around with some of the great sports writers of today some including Peter King, Rick Reilly, and Jim Rome just to name a few. Mr. Cowlishaw’s most incredible feature about his writing is that he doesn’t seem to have one sport that he favors over the others. He seems to be very well balanced in his opinion of what is going on in that certain sport or area and it appears that Tim has not agenda to follow in his sports reporting. In the past Cowlishaw has worked for many different newspapers in including the Tulsa World, the Daily Oklahoman (or the Jokelahoman as I like to call it), and now is working in one of the most promising newspapers in the country the Dallas Morning News. He is a very prominent user of facts and statistics when he writes on a given topic, one quality that the Daily Oklahoman does not look for when they search for a columnist when it comes to writing about sports. As a local boy who grew up in the Dallas metroplex, after being born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tim enjoys writing about his home town teams without coming across as a “homer.” But, writing columns is not the only thing Tim is comfortable doing. He is a frequent competitor on the weekday show Around the Horn on the world’s biggest sports network ESPN. On this show sports columnists from around the country give their opinion on topics from the world of sports, they gather points from the host for every good or great point they have to say, until one is standing(well really sitting) at the end. He has had quite a reputation on the show for giving very quirky remarks, having a good time, and his patented goatee, all of this has prompted the show’s host Toni Reali to give him the nickname of “Texas Tim,” although it seems not that great of a nickname to you and me, he believes it fits him to a “tee.” Tim’s credentials are outstanding. As a graduate of Richardson High School, a very familiar place for me, and the University of Texas (the largest university in the United States) he has done a very good job in his education and you can see that in his columns, but sometimes a person’s education could take over their own head. As we all know people are entitled to their own opinion, Mr. Cowlishaw sometimes goes a little out there with his. In one of his columns from January 16, 1998, a couple of weeks before the Super Bowl, Tim writes about a formula that has been used in the past to predict the winner of the game. Although very naïve to use a formula to predict winners instead of going with a gut feeling, Cowlishaw uses this information to give his opinion on who he believes the winner will be. His great mind was on overdrive and he might have gone a little overboard with his prediction using calculations instead of what he saw on the field. He predicts that the Green Bay Packers will be victorious and will defeat the Denver Broncos handily “One day, the AFC will win another Super Bowl, and chances are The Formula will be there to project it. It just isn't going to happen this year” (“Super Salute”). We would later come to find out a few weeks later that he would be wrong. The Broncos ended up on top in the big game, and Tim came away from his prediction with a little egg on his face. But not to worry, Tim had another column the very next morning, and it didn’t seem to bring him down one bit, because again we are all entitled to our own opinion.

Cowlishaw, Tim. "No Super Salute." Sporting News 222.426 Jan 1998 16. 04 Mar 2008 .

Point 2

“Ice time” seems pretty important to Mr. Cowlishaw, as hockey is one of his favorite topics to talk about. The heralded columnist from the Dallas Morning News gives his opinion on this “northern” sport as much as he possibly can while still giving the fans what they want in the north Texas area which always seems to be one of the big three sports, football, basketball, or baseball. Although these are the main sports in the metroplex, what people need to know is that the Dallas Stars, the National Hockey League team that calls it’s home in Dallas, have had the most success of any professional sports teams in Dallas. The Stars are the only team to have one a championship in the decade, there first and only was achieved in 1999, and have consistently been contenders in the Western Conference. Something that the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers have not done in some time, although the Cowboys seem to be closing the gap on the Stars in being Dallas’ true team in my opinion. Tim is the kind of writer that will try and open the reader’s eyes on certain things that they might not know, or maybe they know of the situation but he goes above and beyond to give them new and maybe even controversial information to regain their focus. In his article in April of 1999, Tim gives some information about the goalie situation or controversy as some were calling it. Ed Belfour, the starting goalie of the eventual Stanley Cup champions, was a solid performer during the regular season but didn’t seem to be playing at a championship level, but his backup was looking like a potential Vezina Trophy winner which is given to the top goalie in the league. Like I pointed out in the first point Tim loves to give stats to back up his writing. Belfour the starting goalie had a record of 32-13-9, meaning he won 32 times, lost 13, and tied 9 times, very solid numbers for a 33 year old protector of the crease but these numbers just seem to wither away in the face of Roman Turek’s stats. The 5 year younger Turek had a staggering record of 15-3-3, 15 wins, 3 losses, and 3 ties, a record that would catapult Turek into the league’s elite players. Was their a controversy in Dallas about their hockey team? Who really knows? But for one thing the public was informed about the potential switch going into the playoffs that year. Tim goes inside and grabs the information that the public, or the ones that are hockey fans at least, wanted to know. Tim is known for his great reporting skills and is almost what I call a Ninja, because of his stealth like reporting and skills in interpreting what the information that he gets really means. Ken Hitchcock believes there is no controversy brewing in Dallas but Tim disagrees, “Sorry, Ken. You pick the lines, we'll pick the controversies”(“It Takes Two”). It looks like the “Ninja” has struck again.

Tim, Cowlishaw. "It Takes Two Baby." Sporting News 223.1619 Apr 1999 57. 04 Mar 2008 .

Point 3

Taking over for a legend, that’s what Tim Cowlishaw did. After Randy Galloway left, a huge void needed to be filled in the heart of the sports section of the Dallas Morning News. The replacement was long time reporter for the Morning News, Tim Cowlishaw. Now it seems like not a big deal and he is another recognizable face in the metroplex, but it needed a jump start from some of the marketing people behind the scenes. Taking over for a legend is almost impossible, you almost want to be the person who took over for the person who took over for the legend. Tim didn’t have that luxury and was thrown into the fire from day 1. Almost like putting in a backup player who has been sitting on the sideline the whole game and hasn’t gotten a chance to warm up. Not putting down Tim’s credentials what so ever, but he was put in a tough situation right of the bat. Not only did he overcome the many fans that disliked him at first because he was the new guy and most had not even heard of him, he carried on and has established a solid foundation for a potential next step into a better position. Already having guest appearances on Around the Horn, Tim just happened to step into another position for the world wide leader in sports, he is one of the lead reporters for Nascar Now, a show completely devoted to the sport of Nascar racing. It seems Mr. Cowlishaw is starting to spread his wings and get himself into new and promising situations that make his future look very bright. Who nows, maybe one day Tim will take over for Jim Rome on his television show on ESPN, because not only is Tim a more respectable person, he is polite and certainly not as annoying. Good luck Tim in any future plans that you might have and maybe you can hook me up with a job one day.

Rob, Lenihan. "Morning News promotes columnist, circulation." Editor & Publisher 131.3819 Sep 1998 35. 04 Mar 2008 .