Steve, what's the Rush?

I read today that Twin Cities native Steve Rushin will be leaving his columnist job with the popular Sports Illustrated magazine. Rushin, 40, was a 1984 graduate of Bloomington Kennedy High School.

I have always enjoyed Rushin’s weekly musings in SI. His self-deprecating humor always made for a couple LOL moments per article.

One of my favorite stories is how Rushin met his wife, former UConn All-American and WNBA star Rebecca Lobo. Around the late 90s, Rushin had written how he had slept with 10,000 women one night. He was referring to a WNBA game he watched and subsequently fell asleep. Rushin recalled how Lobo confronted him after reading that story.


She asked if I was the scribe who once mocked, in Sports Illustrated, women's professional basketball. Reluctantly, I said that I was. She asked how many games I'd actually attended. I hung my head and said, "None." And so Rebecca Lobo invited me to watch her team, the New York Liberty, play at Madison Square Garden. We both reeked of secondhand Camels. (And, quite possibly, of secondhand camels: It was that kind of a dive.) But my insult had been forgiven. It was -- for me, anyway -- love at first slight.


Steve took quite a fancy to Ms. Lobo, even to the point of trying to determine what they had in common.


I ate Frosted Flakes right out of the box, and she was on boxes of Frosted Flakes. I am ludicrous, and she was name-dropped in a rap by Ludacris. We were, I thought, made for each other.


Today, Steve & Rebecca are still married and have two young children.

Here’s hoping that Steve Rushin lands on his feet somewhere as a sports writer. I know he’ll still have at least one loyal reader here in the Twin Cities.