Ron Cook played high school baseball and football just poorly enough to realize that, for him, a career in sports would involve journalism. His first job in high school was covering high school basketball for the Beaver Falls News-Tribune. Ron graduated from Northwestern University in 1978 and he remembers that one of his great challenges was putting a positive spin on Northwestern's 69-0 lost at Michigan. After graduation Ron began work at the Beaver County Times covering the Steelers, the Pirates and high school sports. In October 1983, Ron took a job with the Pittsburgh Press, where he briefly covered West Virginia football and the Pittsburgh Maulers before moving on to the Steelers beat in 1984 and 1985. He was promoted in 1986 to special assignments writer and, among other things, covered the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He moved to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in January 1989 and started writing a sports column a year later that continues to this day. Ron covered the 1992 Winter Olympics in France, the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, but his career highlights are the Penguins Stanley Cup years in 1991, 1992, and 2009, and the Steelers Super Bowl appearances in 1995, 2005, 2008, and 2010. During the run-up to the Steelers Super Bowl XL win in Detroit, Ron was given complete access to cover Jerome Bettis in his hometown. On the radio side, Ron hosted a Saturday afternoon sports talk show on KDKA-AM from 1993 to 2002, and appeared on KDKA sister station 93.7 The Fan as co-host of the "Vinnie and Cook" show and currently hosts a mid-day slot on 93.7 The Fan with Joe Starkey. Ron has frequently appeared on television, first as a recurring guest on Fox Sports Pittsburgh's SportsBeat show, and currently twice a week with Hall of Famer Bob Pompeani on the Nightly Sports Call on KDKA's sister station Pittsburgh's CW. Ron also often participates in the KDKA Sports Showdown Sunday nights at 11:35pm, and is a frequent guest on ESPN's "Outside The Lines" and the NFL Network. Comments are closed.
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