Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Happy Anniversary, Daily Quickie

Seven years ago this morning, the Daily Quickie made its first-ever appearance on the front page of ESPN.com. This was the column. (Wow.)

Very intentionally, it was unlike anything else you could find in sports media, online or off. I put the consumer first: What was the unmet need?

Something that, when you got to work (or woke up for class), gave you some perspective on the previous night and the day ahead. National, all-sport focus. Daily frequency, so you could feel confident making it a habit -- in looking for it every morning.

I believe on that first day, I got up at 4 a.m. to start writing for an 8 a.m. deadline. And it stayed that way for a long time, at least the first six months -- probably the first year. And that doesn't even include the hours I'd put in the night before. I was obsessed. (I was also transfixed by my traffic in those first days; there's nothing as gratifying as hitting "refresh" on the traffic monitor and watching the numbers surge by the minute.)

I would like to think that I designed it for inevitable success -- to be fail-proof. But it would be impossible to know until readers gave it a try. The response was overwhemingly positive.

And I had the job I had dreamed about since I was a kid: Not just a sports columnist, but one with a daily column and a national, write-about-anything focus. I loved every single day (and that included my Ripken-esque streak of 420 consecutive weekdays with a column, what has to be a record not just for ESPN.com but in sportswriting.)

Writing the Quickie opened up all sorts of doors: People recognized the column (if not always my byline). It got me my erstwhile career on "Around the Horn." I got to host a daily chat on ESPN.com (Morning Quickie alums: Holla!) I had the weird talking "Danimation" precursor to ESPN.com's podcasts. It introduced me to all sorts of great folks, both inside and outside of ESPN.com -- many of whom I'm still friends with today. And it introduced me to millions of readers -- tens of thousands of whom were generous enough to email me and many of whom are hopefully reading this now. Thanks for sticking around.

January 6 will always be a special day for me.

-- D.S.

7 comments:

Steve Sprague said...

Happy Anniversary! I loved the Daily Quickie right away and was sad to see it go. I'm happy you've found a new home though.

Good call on OSU's tough road to repeat, their only two losses in '03 were two out of the three games you highlighted. Also good call on Chris Leak winning one title at Florida, granted he was splitting time with Tebow, but good call.

Unfortunately your column reminded me of how long we have been watching the "Favre Retirement Show". Egads, even 7 years ago he was jerking us around?!?!

Stormy said...

Congratulations!! I loved the DQ!

BobbyStompy said...

How are you not mentioning the fact that you called a Chris Leak national title in that very column? Pretty impressive, I say.

Dr. Strangeshoe said...

Just wanted to wish ya a happy Anniversary, and Thanks! for all the fun and entertainment and stories from the Daily Quickie to DS.com to the Sporting News. Never really had much to add anywhere, but I was (and still am) a daily reader. Never found myself on timteblog, and even though I moved to FL from OH, I was never a college FB fan. I'm always happiest in the Dawg Pound, not in a horseshoe or swamp or elsewhere. Here's to many more words to read for a long time.

bird said...

Dan, I clicked on the link to the first Quickie, and in the right column, there it was: "Chris Leak, UF recruit, will win at least one national championship for the Gators." Considering that this was written in January 2003, that was very Nostradamus-like on your part!

Mark Edmonds said...

LOVE the part about Favre retiring. Some things never change...Thanks for all the Quickies and WUC's

Chewy said...

Congrats