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Reporter Hits Home Run

When he was a child Luke Graham (Jour’06) dreamed of being a center fielder for the New York Yankees. By the time he turned 13, he realized his dream wasn’t realistic and searched for other sports-related careers. 

“I knew I wanted to be a reporter when I went to the 1998 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Denver,” Luke says. “I rode on a bus full of sports reporters to Coors Field.”

At ����������-Boulder Luke wrote stories for Bylines, the alumni publication of journalism and mass communication, as well as interned at the Craig Daily Press, Boulder Daily Camera and Longmont Times Call. 

After he graduated he was cleaning carpets for a company near Boulder when he received the phone call for which he’d been waiting. 

“I got a call from the Steamboat paper while I was doing a sewage-flood cleaning,” Luke says. “I was standing in a chemical suit in the middle of sewage water, and they told me they had a sports reporter position open. Of course I took the job.”

After seven years reporting on sports for the Steamboat Pilot & Today, Luke is editor of the ExploreSteamboat.com section. He continues to cover high school sports, local winter sports and the Winter Olympics. 

In 2010 Luke went to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and is headed to Russia for the Winter Olympics in February. He covered everything from bobsledding to hockey, with a focus on the most popular events in Steamboat — skiing and snowboarding.

“The 2010 Games were a bit overwhelming since I had never done anything like that before,” Luke says. “I was nervous working next to people from big organizations like Sports Illustrated and ESPN. But it didn’t take me long to feel like I belonged there because I’ve been covering winter sports all of my professional life.”

Luke says covering the 2010 Winter Olympics was a career highlight. But in his daily job he enjoys his time as editor managing the print and online calendars, conducting interviews and working alongside other Buffs in the newsroom. Nicole Miller (Jour’06) works as assistant editor, John Russell (Jour’90) as photographer and Scott Franz (Jour’10) as business and health care reporter.

“We have three other Buffs on the editorial side of the paper,” Luke says. “It’s fun working with them, especially when there are [football] games on.”