Sports

Terry Foster's New Beat: Oakland University Basketball from the Inside

December 04, 2015, 7:08 AM by  Alan Stamm

The Detroit News' loss is Oakland University's gain.

The school will announce Friday that sportswriter Terry Foster joins its athletic department as an online basketball writer, the journalist tells Deadline Detroit.


Terry Foster: "I've really liked college basketball for a long time."

"This gives me an opportunity to write in a different way -- covering the team as an insider, not just doing game stories," Foster says of the part-time position, which starts after he takes early retirement from The News on Dec. 27. "It's good for both of us."

His work -- a blend of feature articles and column-like commentaries -- will appear at goldengrizzlies.com, OU's athletics site.

One benefit for the NCAA Division I school is that its new hire keeps a high-visibility role as co-host of "The Valenti and Foster Show," a popular sports talk program on WXYT 97.1 FM from 2-6 p.m. weekdays.

As part of his upcoming arrangement, Foster will tweet links to his basketball posts -- "which they really like because I have about 91,000 followers," he says. That's nearly four times as large as the university's Twitter community (23,100).

"I've covered every level of sports -- high school, college, pros, Olympics -- and I've really liked college basketball for a long time," the 56-year--old newsman said by phone Thursday night. "So I contacted some schools, and it turns out OU was looking for someone to do this."

The deal was arranged after a five-minute call with Scott MacDonald, senior assistant athletic director for public relations. 

Two weeks ago, Foster tweeted that "The News wanted me to cover Pistons full time. It conflicted with my radio career."  As a counter-offer, he tells Deadline, "I offered to cover small colleges and do backup Pistons" beat coverage.

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The Golden Grizzlies mascot.

When that couldn't be arranged, as he tells it, he accepted a buyout after 27 years at the daily (first reported Nov. 20 by Deadline).

Foster plans to ask editors at the paper for a OK to cover a Dec. 22 game at The Palace between OU's Golden Grizzlies and MSU, as requested by his new employer.   

His new arrangement is similar to former News colleague Mike O'Hara's relationship with the Detroit Lions, where he's a "contributing columnist" at its website.     

Fotser, who lives in West Bloomfield, looks forward to a cross-county commute of about 20 minutes to the Rochester campus. "I don't even have to get on the freeway," he notes.

The native Detroiter, who'll be 57 in February, graduated in 1981 from Central Michigan University. Before joining The News in 1988, he worked for five years at the Detroit Free Press and 16 months at the Grand Rapids Press.

Related article:

Another Sports Media Change: Terry Foster Will Leave News, Nov. 20

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