"I assumed he really wanted me to deliver the commencement address in an unmarked envelope, dressed in a brown UPS uniform, to someone more dignified than I," Rushin said.,”

When Steve Rushin received a letter from University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild asking him to deliver the university's commencement address, Rushin joked that the request had to be "some kind of clerical error."

"I assumed he really wanted me to deliver the commencement address in an unmarked envelope, dressed in a brown UPS uniform, to someone more dignified than I," Rushin said.

Rushin, a Marquette alumnus and former senior writer for Sports Illustrated, accepted the honor and will address Marquette's class of 2007 on May 20 in dress robes, not a deliveryman's uniform.

Rushin graduated in 1988 with a degree in journalism. Two weeks after receiving his diploma, Rushin started at Sports Illustrated and three years later became the magazine's youngest senior writer. Rushin wrote for the magazine for 19 years and in 2006 the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association named him the national sportswriter of the year.

Rushin, 40, left SI earlier this year to spend more time with his family and to write books.

Rushin said Wild's letter mentioned past commencement speakers – former first lady Barbara Bush; the late Fred Rogers, host of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood"; and Rushin's own commencement speaker, the late former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

"I am very flattered and very honored and more than a little intimidated," Rushin said.

But Rushin said he'd rather speak to a 20,000-seat basketball arena than 20 kids in a classroom. He said he once spoke at Career Day at amiddle school to a class of seventh graders. Rushin called it one of his worst speaking gigs.

"I think teaching would be great – if I didn't have to teach seventh grade and completely pit-out my dress shirt in the first five minutes," he said.

Rushin may not consider himself worthy of keeping company with past commencement speakers, but avid Sports Illustrated readers considered Rushin the face, or rather, the voice, of the magazine. To them, Rushin remains "Mr. Sports Illustrated."

Rushin wrote a column in 2002 about his visit to the White House and joked that President Bush called him "Mr. Sports Illustrated" because Bush couldn't remember his name. The week after Rushin's final Sports Illustrated column ran, he received a handwritten letter.

"I found an envelope rubber-banded to the outside of the mailbox because the little mailbox door doesn't close. The return address was the White House," Rushin said.

The note was from the president. It was addressed to "Mr. Sports Illustrated" and congratulated Rushin for "hanging it up" at SI. At the end of the letter Bush wrote, "And I do too know your name, Steve."

"He had underlined 'Steve' a bunch of times," Rushin said. "That the president of the United States would spend two minutes each week reading my column. It was scary when it happened, but I'll take it."

Student, journalist … oh yeah, and book author

Rushin arrived at Marquette in the fall of 1984 and ate pizza with his parents at Angelo's before moving into McCormick Hall.

"I remember thinking, 'This is my room for the next year and I have to share it with someone?'" Rushin said. "It was like a walk-in closet. It was an unbelievable dump 20 years ago, I can't imagine what it must be now."

Rushin's room in McCormick turned out to be an excellent place to sleep through his 8 a.m. remedial French course. Rushin said he didn't learn any French that year, but he did learn a lot about journalism, or so he thought.

Rushin wrote his first article for The Marquette Tribune in September 1984. The story was about intramural football and, according to Rushin, was "virtually rewritten in editing." Even so, Rushin said he was thrilled to see his first-ever byline in print.

"I sent about 40 copies to my parents," Rushin said. "I think it ran on the very last page of the paper next to some liquor store ad."

Rushin only wrote about 10 stories for the Tribune during his college career.

"My problem was that I was so ridiculously shy that I was afraid to go into the office and pick up an assignment," he said. "No one was dying to have me write for the paper anyway."

Rushin chalks up his lack of work to a lack of bravery, but perhaps it was really because of the lack of sleep. During his junior year, Rushin published his first book, "From A-Train to Yogi: The Fan's Book of Sports Nicknames," which he co-authored with Chuck Wielgus and Alexander Wolff. In the acknowledgements section of the book, Rushin thanked his college friends Mike Villafana and Mike Hodan.

Rushin, who grew up in Bloomington, Minn., and Villafana, a 1988 College of Communication alumus, had a 10-minute weekly sportscast on MU Radio. Rushin also used to write commentary for their show's hosts.

"They knew he had a knack for telling a story and for being a well-versed writer that could really do something during his career," Villafana said. "That's what I know Steve as: a great writer. He just knows how to put words, sentences and paragraphs together to tell a story."

Rushin's talent did not go unnoticed in the journalism department. Jim Arnold, a former journalism professor, remembered Rushin as a quiet genius.

"He was probably the most talented writer I ever taught," Arnold said. "He was a real gem and an astonishingly good writer even at the age of 18 or 19."

"He's always been a kind of quiet guy. He had a big smile though, and he was witty in his writing."

A testament to Rushin's shyness? Rushin hadn't told either Villafana or Arnold that he was delivering the commencement address.

Rushin admitted that he was an introvert in college.

"I had about three friends at Marquette," he said. "You know how people say they have a circle of friends? Well, I had a triangle of friends."

"The very notion that I'd be giving the commencement address at Marquette would have been shocking to me back then."

One of those in the triangle was Hodan, who roomed with Rushin junior and senior year.

"Steve was kind of a quiet guy, but yet he was one of the funniest, wittiest, quick-witted guys I'd ever met," said Hodan, a 1988 College of Business Administration alumnus. "He was extremely ambitious. I remember meeting him for the first time and asking him, 'So what do you want to do?' He said, 'I'm going to write for Sports Illustrated.'"

Rise to SI stardom

That ambition most likely got Rushin the connections that led to his job at SI. Rushin had corresponded with longtime SI writer Alexander Wolff since childhood, and it was Wolff who asked Rushin to co-author their 1987 book.

"We always joked that there's Steve banging on the typewriter and he'd hold up his book and say, 'Here's my resume,'" Hodan said. "It didn't surprise me that he worked for Sports Illustrated because it was like, 'Man, this guy, he's already got all the connections.' It didn't surprise me at all that he got a job. It surprised me that he became their youngest senior writer ever."

Arnold said he has remained in touch with his old student and Rushin's success has hardly shocked him.

"He was pretty much a natural, so it's hard to take credit for natural talent, but there is a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that you were right about it," Arnold said. "I was never too surprised by that career he had."

Rushin considers himself a writer and said he is unsure about how he'll do as a public speaker on May 20.

"I just want people to realize that they are going to be more than OK out there in the 'real world' and that these guys, your so-called competition and leaders, are just knuckleheads like you and I are," Rushin said. "If I can make it out there in the 'real world' so can everybody else."

Rushin's own graduation fell on the evening of a 1988 NBA playoff game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Boston Celtics, starring Rushin's idol, Larry Bird.

"I was a Celtics nut growing up, and I wanted to see how it ended," he said. "I missed one of the all-time greatest fourth quarters so I could go down and hear the chief justice of the Supreme Court speak. I suggested (to my parents) that we hang around to see the game but they told me, 'Get the hell out of the hotel room.' My main memory of that commencement address was wondering what was happening in the game."

Rising to the occasion?

Rushin said his main hope for May 20 is that he doesn't disappoint. He recalled a celebrity golf tournament he participated in when he did just that.

"I got to the tee box and people were asking, 'Who is our celebrity going to be?' I said, 'Dude, I am it. I hate to break it to you,'" Rushin said. "I hope it's not that way with commencement speaking as well."

Rushin joked that he doesn't have any delusions that his audience will be hanging on his every word. But perhaps they will.

"He had a dream, and he followed it, and he worked really hard for it," Hodan said of his old roommate. "Here's a true story of a guy who had a dream at a young age and followed it."

Rushin said he has only good memories of Sports Illustrated, but was ready to leave when he announced his decision.

"A lot of people said, 'You had the greatest job in the world,' and I honestly can't argue with them," Rushin said. "I've had the manager of the (California Angels of Anaheim baseball team) throw his pants at me. I remember standing there, thinking, 'How cool is this job?'

"If you were working for IBM no one would ever stand up in a business meeting and take off his pants and throw them at you. It's a silly, surreal 'job' that doesn't seem like work."

Rushin said his decision came down to family. He cited wanting to spend more time with his wife, former Connecticut and WNBA basketball star, and current ESPN analyst, Rebecca Lobo, and their two daughters as a big reason for leaving.

"Some people take a year off after school to 'find themselves,'" he said. "I started at Sports Illustrated two weeks after graduation. I'm finally taking those months off after a 19-year delay."

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