In July 2004 my phone rang and it was Rick Telander on the other end wanting to write a column about The Heckler. Since that time, Telander (pronounced TELL-ender, not TEE-lander as I've sometimes heard it butchered) has remained a FOTH (Friend of The Heckler), occasionally offering up his talents for a now defunct comic strip "Dust in the Wind" featuring Dusty Baker and his half-pint sidekick son.

Telander's approachable, affable nature belies his stature. He's up there with the old school sportswriter legends; the guys you picture in the Bert Sugar hat and herringbone sport coat pounding out a column on a typewriter and rushing from the arena to the smoky cigar bar, where the real stories emerge during whiskey-fulled chat fests with any of their thousands of sources, be they coaches, players, trainers or whomever else.

But he's new school too. While he might not be among the talking heads on any of the ESPN "Sports Argument"-style shows, Telander has adapted along with the sports world. He's now as likely to write a column about Ultimate Fighting as he is about the Cubs, Sox, Bears or Bulls.

The Heckler met with Telander at a North Side bar during a recent pay-perview showing of a big, blood-filled UFC bout. We turned the table on Telander, interviewing him about his unorthodox career path, riding the rails as a college student and his affinity for Ernest Hemingway.

The Heckler: I've started to understand the breadth of your resume as I've gotten to know you and I was surprised because you've always been pretty down to earth to me.
Rick Telander: Well, I like to have fun and prefer to be as happy and cheerful as possible.

Life is short and I'm past the halfway point. I don't feel old. I feel kind of like a teenager who's been in a fight. I still think about the same things I did as a kid. I really don't know what I do differently then when I was a kid.

TH: You have told me before that you rode the rails as a kid. What was that about?
RT: Yeah, I was a hobo. During and after college, I rode all over. L.A., Mexico, New Orleans. You'd hop a train knowing what direction it was headed and figure out the town you were in by looking for a water tower. I had no responsibility. I was on a full scholarship to Northwestern [to play
football].

TH: You're originally from Peoria, right?
RT: Yes, I went to Richwoods. Lettered in track, not even football. I didn't want to go to Northwestern. I wanted to go to Indiana or Wisconsin but they didn't recruit me. Only Northwestern, Princeton and a few other schools out East recruited me.

I didn't choose Princeton because they had fireplaces in their dorms. Too pretentious for me.

I had a great childhood, but maybe that's a bad thing. I could be a better writer if I had more problems. All writers have problems. My problem is life. The closer I get to figuring that out, I find I'm further than when I started. But I love my life. I can play a game anywhere. I almost missed the Super Bowl one year because I was playing pickup basketball.

TH: What led you to sports writing?
RT: I didn't have a full-time job until I was 31. It's an accident I'm a sports columnist. I don't read newspapers. I didn't know who Red Smith was. I knew who Victor Hugo was. Henry Miller. Hemingway. I was asked to be a columnist by Frank Deford when he started The National.

I majored in English literature and wanted to write. I never watched sports. I never collected baseball cards or any of that. I bought the cards for the gum.

But I love covering sports. You never know how it will end. Lots of times the good guys lose. The best team doesn't always win. The Cubs were the best team in 2003, 1969 too. They could have won the World Series. I never get tired talking about sports. I respect the athletes. I'm not out there hating guys. Even Michael Vick. The best athletes get humbled. Everybody gets his ass handed to them at some point. You think Jimmy Clausen's going to win every game?

TH: What do you think the next generation of sports reporting looks like?
RT: The Internet has obviously changed everything. Printed paper is becoming silly. It's waste. I hope that good writers continue to find a voice.

That's my hope. If Hemingway was around today he'd be a blogger. People forget that books were cutting edge technology once too.

From the September 2007 issue by Brad Zibung. Photo by Brad Zibung.