Ruzzi's Journey to the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame

Ruzzi's Journey to the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame

By: Billy Cvecko 

Mike Ruzzi, WICU News Anchor

Believe it or not Mike Ruzzi was extremely shy growing up. "Oh petrified, it was bad," the TV sports anchor said in a telephone interview. "I mean you hear the stories about people being shy, you know, times it by ten and that was me." 

Coming out of South Park High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. Ruzzi aspired to be a columnist or sports writer.  He discovered he had some talent in writing when he won a five thousand dollar scholarship to college and an internship opportunity with the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh (WPXI) for writing an essay on why he wanted to get into the media business. Although it was a slow process, that all changed once he started attending college at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania.  Ruzzi gives most of the credit to his college academic advisor, Dr. Frank Johnson. Johnson would take an hour after every class to work with Ruzzi and better his speech and communication skills.   “...what he taught me just as far as being able to communicate period, to be effective, it was unbelievable.”, Ruzzi said. Johnson also started Ruzzi off with a bang as he got him an internship with the sports information department at Edinboro.  By  his junior year Ruzzi started doing the PA announcing for women’s basketball games.  His hard work didn't go unnoticed and soon enough he was asked to broadcast the District 10 playoff games. From there Ruzzi continued to climb the ladder. His next opportunity came about when he got offered a chance to fill in for a sick broadcaster and do the play-by-play for the Meadville basketball team over the radio. In his senior year, Ruzzi, was doing the play-by-play for the football and basketball teams on the campus radio.  He also continued to work out of the Meadville radio station doing play-by-play. After graduating Edinboro in 1982, Ruzzi went back to WPXI in Pittsburgh for an internship, where he said he learned invaluable lessons, that still impact his life today.  Ruzzi, now 52, has spent the past 30 years as the sports anchor in Erie, Pa. for WICU sports channel 12. He has just recently become the head news anchor there. During his time as a sports anchor, Ruzzi, covered six Super Bowls, a Daytona 500, and numerous state championship games. Ruzzi has come a long way from that extremely nervous and shy kid he used to be.  Just this summer Ruzzi was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame for his years of sports reporting.

 

Interview Transcript:

Billy: What was the biggest thing that you took away from your time at Edinboro that helped you the most in your career?

Mike: For me I had a great advisor.  His name was Doctor Frank Johnson.  I came out of high school in Pittsburgh and was probably the shyest kid in Western Pennsylvania and that wasn't even debatable.  It was actually difficult for me to talk to people if you can believe that.  I wanted to be, when I started, a sports writer.  You know like be a columnist and then this guy got a hold of me and he met after class for an hour and worked with me for years on speech and dialogue and everything and then one internship lead to another and it went from being in print to being in media.  So the biggest thing I'd say was the influence that Doctor Johnson had on me.  Even if I would have never gotten a job in television or print, what he taught me just as far as being able to communicate period, to be effective, it was unbelievable.  

Billy: I couldn't believe that you were once a shy person.

Mike: Oh petrified, it was bad. I mean you hear the stories about people being shy, you know times it by ten and that was me.  

Billy: Really? So what exactly would he do that got you to be more out going?

Mike: Well, the big thing was to get up in front of people, which I was petrified to do in the beginning anyhow.  And it start off with like four to ten you know maybe part of the class that I was in.  I remember the first time I had to do it I was up all night, I couldn't sleep a wink I was so nervous.  If they had taped this it would be hysterical, I'm up there sweating, nervous, and barely got through it, but I got throughout it. And we kept doing that, month after month and year after year. By the time I reached my third year I was able to give a confident speech, which was impossible as a freshman.  And then, you know, one thing lead to another.  So it started with the basics, you know you were involved in athletics think of the very basic things you did to get started in any sport and that's what I had to do with speaking.  

Billy: You kind of answered how you broke into the industry, can you explain a little more about those internships and how that lead to your career? 

Mike: Yes, he set me up to get going. Part of this project he had in mind.  He got me my first internship with the sports information department at Edinboro, with lead me to do the PA announcing for women's basketball games.  Now at that time in 1982, you'd have ten people at the games, but it was the point of me getting experience in front of people… blah blah blah. And I got pretty decent at it and District 10 asked me to do their playoff games.  And then the playoff games actually lead to a radio station in Meadville.  The regular guy that did play-by-play on the radio for basketball got sick one night and they asked me to do it and I got 30 bucks a game and I ended up doing like ten games and I thought that i was like the richest person in America. That was the start of it the internship lead to the PA which lead to district 10 which lead to meeting this guy from Meadville radio station, one thing lead to another, their guy gets sick. now I'm hooked because I'm doing play-by-play. And then the following year when I was a senior I ended up doing the play-by-play on the campus station: football and basketball while still doing football and basketball at this station in Meadville.  So, one thing lead to another, that's how I got rolling.  

Billy: So as long as you get into the industry that is the most important thing and then you never know where you'll go.

Mike: Absolutely, you never know what anything is going to lead to.  In high school one thing I had to do was write a 1,000 word essay on why you want to get into the media business, and there was four of us out of all the high schools in Pittsburgh that were selected and they gave us like a $5,000 scholarship to any state school. Part of that was, the whole summer before I even went off to college at the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh WPXI, the people that i met through that experience lead to a real internship at WPXI four years later, which I would of never got if I didn't have that first one. The second one I had was invaluable, at that time that was like market 12.  There were things that I got to do that were just incredible.  Some of those lessons that I learned then in 1982 - 83 I still use today in my job today.  That how valuable that experience was.  

Billy: How long did it take you to get comfortable on air?

Mike: I'd say at least a year, a good solid year to where I wasn't thinking about it or to where it just became natural.  Today, everyone that comes out of school, there ready to go out of the gate because its a different environment.  Stuff that you guys are using now, we're using now, so that when you get here you just walk in here and do it.  We didn't have that background. We didn't have, you know, studios or television sets or anything like that, TelePrompTers, nothing.  So when you can out of school back then you really had to make a transition and learn different aspects of the business.  

Billy:  Do you miss talking about sports every day? and Why?

Mike:  Yes, at times there's no doubt. If you do one thing for a long period of time.  And then there's other nights, No. haha but you know I Friday night football or Prep vs McDowell are playing basketball, I'm not going to lie about that.  

Billy:  What is the best advice you could give someone who this trying to follow in your career path?

Mike:  You have to approach every single day like its the Super Bowl, and if you do that, its gonna work out.  You are going to run into people that have just as much talent, maybe even a little more but what I found that difference to be are the ones that bring it every single day.  And again I go back to Athletics, if you want to be the District 10 100m champion you can't practice once every two weeks.  Every day has to be all-out all the time.  and that's how it has to be in this business or any business that you get into.  That and you have to have a positive approach.  I just see to many people that get caught up in the totally negativity  of anything and they just stick with that and it  just beats them up and it takes away  from the big picture of what they should be doing. You got to be positive, but more importantly you got to bring it every day. Every, Every day!

Billy:  That's one thing that I'm good at is being positive, for the most part. My friends always say, I've never seen you said in your life, and I'm sad but you just can't show it. You got to be positive.  

Mike:  That's right, in any business that's 95% of it, I'm convinced of that. There's no doubt.