John U. Bacon has worked nearly three decades as a writer, public speaker, and college instructor, winning awards for all three.
Bacon earned an honours degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1986, and a Master’s in Education in 1994. In 2005-06, the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship named him the first recipient of the Benny Friedman Fellowship for Sports Journalism.
He started his journalism career covering high school sports for The Ann Arbor News, then wrote a light-hearted lifestyle column, before becoming the Sunday sports feature writer for The Detroit News in 1995. He earned numerous state and national awards for his work, including “Notable Sports Writing” in The Best American Sports Writing in 1998 and 2000.
After Bacon covered the 1998 Nagano Olympics, he moved from the sports page to the Sunday front page, roaming the Great Lakes State finding fresh features, then left the paper in 1999 to freelance for more than two dozen national publications, including stories on Formula One racing in Australia for The New York Times, Japanese hockey for ESPN Magazine, and Hemingway’s Michigan summer home for Time.
He has authored 12 books on sports, business, health, and history, five of which are New York Times best sellers.