ESPN and sports pages across the country are replete with those conversational gems beloved by
jocks, whose physical prowess doesn't always translate to eloquent expression. "Sportswriters
too often hear cliches," says Sean Callahan '87.
That wasn't the case, Callahan found, when he and fellow feature writer Steve Boman
began interviewing senior athletes for Chicago's Daily Southtown. That's "senior" as in 50-and-older, not "senior' as in fourth-year high school or college student.
"We saw pretty quickly that there were some fascinating stories in a 50-and-over
basketball league on Chicago's South Side; men in their 60s traveling around the world to play
volleyball; women who went to school before Title IX finding that they had hidden athletic
talent," he says. "We loved the stories and thought there was something there."
The two talked about producing a book or documentary, but a willing investor soon
turned their thoughts to a magazine. They printed a test issue in autumn 2004 and distributed it at
the Huntsman World Senior Games in southern Utah. Following what turned out to be a
successful introduction, the magazine was officially launched in spring 2005. Callahan's Notre
Dame classmate and friend, Brian Reilly '87, joined the effort as publisher, overseeing sales
efforts and circulation.
The subject matter hit an underserved group of athletes who have two things in common
-- a belief in physical fitness at any age and a self-deprecating sense of humor. The magazine,
after all, is called GeezerJock.
"We thought of different names -- Senor Fitness, Master Sports," says Callahan. "Those
just fell flat." In their coverage of master sports events, he and Boman had heard athletes
referring to themselves as geezer jocks, and they kept returning to that name.
"It has paid off, in terms of coverage," says Callahan, with NBC Nightly News, The Wall
Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, CNBC and NPR all running stories on the outlandishly
named magazine. It hasn't always paid off in terms of reader happiness, however, as some
reacted angrily to the geezer appellation. Still, says Callahan, "People see the magazine, and they
definitely are intrigued."
Intrigued enough that the publication has grown from 17,000 subscribers to 50,000. From
four issues its first year, to six its second and eight this year, the founders plan to go monthly in
2008. They also are testing newsstand sales this autumn in the Chicago area. Advertising, says
Callahan, doubled last year. Father Edward A. Malloy, CSC, former ND president, has been
featured in the magazine, talking about playing basketball later in life.
Along with his work as editor of the print issue, Callahan contributes a blog and other
stories to the magazine's online version at geezerjock.com. Its audience may be seniors, but they
are not technologically illiterate. And that version of the magazine is so hip that one of its more
popular features was "the hip replacement diaries."
(July 2007)
