Cameron Morfit

The highlight of Cameron’s two-plus decade career as a sportswriter may have been when colleagues at Sports Illustrated convinced Tiger Woods to pose with a live, adult tiger. Or when Cameron interviewed a 7-foot tall, 500-pound Brazilian arm-wrestler at a roadside casino in Ft. Hall, Idaho. Or the time he had his tires flattened by a mob of unruly high school basketball fans. It hasn’t always been glamorous, but he was lucky to make a living as a writer in the ever-shrinking toy department that is sports journalism. Much of that time was spent in the world of golf, which Woods took from niche to mainstream once he survived the Sports Illustrated photo department’s death-defying shenanigans (“Uh, Mrs. Woods? We’re calling about your son. . .”).

In the course of his reporting, Cameron met celebrities ranging from Bill Clinton (went well!) to Bill Murray (went terribly!), and from Joe Pesci (exactly like his film persona) to Peyton Manning (a world-class talker in addition to being pretty good at football). In addition to sports, Cameron has also written about astrology, insider trading, a serial killer, pop culture, and other fun things. Away from work, he counts a recent e-bike trip through Zion National Park in Southern Utah as a peak experience. Cameron believes passionately in the power of good writing, and that, done properly, the personal essay can be a potent tool for human connection — and sometimes even a rollicking good time.