MacMullan, Jackie

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MacMullan, Jackie

PERSONAL:

Married Michael Boyle; children: Alyson, Douglas. Education: University of New Hampshire, graduate (cum laude). Hobbies and other interests: Volunteers for charities, including the Red Auerbach Youth Foundation, the Huntington's Disease Society of America, the New England Hemophilia Association, and the New England Women's Fund.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Boston Globe, P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Boston Globe, Boston, MA, writer, beginning 1982, columnist and associate editor, 2002—; Entertainment Sports Network (ESPN), correspondent, 1990-95; Sports Illustrated, senior writer, 1995-2000; contributing writer for CNN/SI (news network), 1996-99; currently correspondent for WHDH-TV, Boston, and the New England Sports Network.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Robert Perry Student-Athlete Award and Dean Williamson Award, both from University of New Hampshire; Associated Press Sports Editors awards, 1993, for investigative reporting, 1994, for feature writing; Distinguished Achievement Award, Tufts University, 1995; New England Women's Leadership Award, 1997; New Fund Hall of Fame media award, 2000; inducted into the University of New Hampshire Hall of Honor, 2001.

WRITINGS:

(With Larry Bird) Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love, foreword by Pat Riley, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Geno Auriemma) Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection, foreword by Diana Taurasi, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2006.

ADAPTATIONS:

Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love was adapted to audio cassette, Recorded Books, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jackie MacMullan is an award-winning sports journalist who has worked for both newspapers and television sports networks. She is especially notable for her reportage on the game of basketball, a sport in which she herself excelled as a player for the University of New Hampshire; she played basketball for four years and was team captain during her senior year. In MacMullan's first two book publications she has played the role of collaborator, assisting two prominent basketball figures with their autobiographies. First, she helped Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird with his book, Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love. Library Journal contributor Barry X. Miller called the results "a courtside seat to the basketball life of one of the game's greatest; a nothing-but-net buzzer-beating game winner for all collections." MacMullan's second collaboration, Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection, is the autobiographical account of University of Connecticut women's basketball team coach Geno Auriemma. Auriemma raised the women's program from its initially lowly state to national prominence, yet a Publishers Weekly critic lamented that the potentially compelling story is not too well told: "In his talky style, [Auriemma] is unable to flesh out the characters, and his anecdotes are stiff."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, March 1, 2001, Barry X. Miller, review of audiobook Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love, p. 154.

Publishers Weekly, December 5, 2005, review of Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection, p. 47.

ONLINE

ESPN Web site,http://espn.go.com/ (October 3, 2006), brief biography of Jackie MacMullan.

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