Guest TigerBlog - Nate Ewell On Grant Wahl

When TigerBlog first heard of the death of Grant Wahl, the first person he thought of was Nate Ewell, who was a co-sports editor of the Daily Princetonian with Grant in the 1990s. 

They made the perfect college journalist pair, both so far advanced for their age. They both earned TB's immediate respect, and he has liked both of them very much ever since.

As Grant grew into one of the greatest soccer journalists ever, Nate embarked on his own career in hockey. Today he is the Vice President of Communications and Content for the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights.

TB offered Nate the opportunity to write something about his dear friend Grant. Much like TB's piece yesterday, Nate's was awful to have to write and came straight from the heart:

It’s awfully unfair to try to write about someone who was the most gifted writer I ever knew.

 

They don’t ask short people to dunk when a basketball player dies.

 

But I also don’t know what else to do, and of course it’s all so unfair. Grant Wahl should be the one writing. Not about Grant Wahl, but about the 2022 World Cup. Writing about the broader issues in sport and society, and all that makes the game and the world beyond so beautiful.

 

Grant was a beautiful writer, but as the dozens of tributes to him since his awful, untimely death have pointed out, he was so much more than that.

 

I was fortunate enough to befriend Grant when we were young, aspiring sportswriters at The Daily Princetonian. We became sports editors of the paper, both so committed to its success that sometimes people mistook me for him. After all, when you look at someone – full head of hair or not – you can’t tell if they are a brilliant writer. So I’d smile and nod: “That column you loved – my friend Grant wrote that.”

 

There was no shame being second-fiddle to Grant Wahl when it came to writing. In fact, when I was named the Prince’s sophomore “Sportswriter of the Year,” it was an open joke how fortunate I was that Grant caught mono that spring. I can’t recall exactly, but it might have been mentioned when the editor presented me the award.

 

Besides being a great writer, Grant was a lover of Cadbury Crème Eggs, a fierce state of Kansas loyalist and a perfectly average golfer for my game. I couldn’t write like him, but neither of us could hit a long iron.

 

The summer after recovering from mono, Grant spent about six weeks in Boston with me. We played FIFA on Sega Genesis, and he went to his first World Cup match. So did I; he just never stopped going.

 

When we got back to campus, we prepared to take on sports editor duties that winter. With the help of deputy sports editor Malena Salberg Barzilai ’97 and an incredible staff, we took it very seriously. Sports in the Prince started on the back page, and we asked for more and more pages every day so we could tell the Tigers’ stories. Half-jokingly we called it “Manifest Destiny” as sports took over more of the paper. There was a little cockiness there, but some truth as our department grew. It was a source of pride for both of us that Malena and fellow sports department alum Rick Klein ’98 were named the next two Editors-in-Chief.

 

We were ambitious. He was compassionate, hilarious, tireless and – it can’t be said enough – brilliant. I thought we complemented each other well, but I always knew I was also along for a ride.

 

I’ve often thought that one of the things that makes Princeton special is how much you learn from the people who aren’t necessarily your teachers. For me, that meant Bill Tierney. TigerBlog and his old boss, Kurt Kehl. Furman Witherspoon. And undoubtedly Grant.

 

I kept learning from Grant up until we last talked, for 45 minutes last month. He helped me understand some soccer – or football – topics that were hitting my inbox. But mostly we caught up on our lives, and all that has happened since those days at 48 University Place.

 

We agreed we should talk more. And it’s all so unfair that we can’t.