NORFOLK, Va. – Tonight’s men’s basketball game will not just be the final home game of the Monarchs’ regular season, it will be a culmination of a nearly 50-year career in journalism. Old Dominion Senior Executive Writer Harry Minium will pen his final basketball recap tonight as he prepares for his retirement on June 30.
Minium worked at the Virginian-Pilot for 30+ years as a sports reporter and also local government, but it was the sports section that kept calling the longtime Hampton Roads native. Minium returned to the sports section of the Virginian-Pilot in 2012 to cover the ODU Football team, and he was in for a wild ride covering ODU’s run in the FCS Playoffs and covering Taylor Heinicke win the Walter Payton Award in Philadelphia that year. Minium proceeded to cover ODU’s move to FBS and Conference USA with the ferocity you would expect from a seasoned reporter. Minium’s coverage of ODU Football was nearly daily and envy of any league school during a time a majority of schools still had beat writers.
The 2016 Monarch football team offered Minium a final chapter to cover a team that went 10-3 and won the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl. That year the Pilot offered special edition bowl coverage that was nearly all dotted with articles by Minium and his diligent coverage of the team.
After the 2017 season Minium became a columnist for the Virginian-Pilot and shortly after was hired at ODU as a senior executive writer. Minium offered something few athletic departments could offer: an experienced writer that could churn out articles, write features, game recaps and the versatility to cover every sport.
“Harry has been a great asset for Old Dominion athletics over the years,” Eric Bohannon, ODU Senior Assoc. AD for Broadcasting and Communications said. “Harry has always done a great job of making whomever he is interviewing feel comfortable and them knowing Harry would do his absolute best at telling their story. Harry has always done a great job at telling a story.”
Minium has won dozens of awards for his writing of feature and game stories and was recently inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
His sports coverage in the Hampton Roads area is vast, going from ODU and Norfolk State to the Norfolk Admirals. He also covered Virginia and Virginia Tech and local legends such as Bruce Smith and Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker.
Tonight’s game is not the end for Minium, but a chance for all of you who read and enjoyed his words for the last decades to let him know you appreciated his insights and ability to tell a story. He will continue to write feature stories and some game recaps for ODU over the next few months before moving to Germany to be with his wife, Kerstin Baessler.
To read stories written by Harry Minium, click here.