Santa Barbara’s best-known sports columnist, Mark Patton, talks about his career highlights, favorite athletes, his family, and professional challenges, in this exclusive podcast interview.
Patton spent decades in Santa Barbara as a sports writer, editor and columnist, building relationships with youth athletes, their families, college stars and professional players.
He was written thousands of stories and columns, and is part of the fabric of the local sports culture as much as many of the athletes he has written about.
In this podcast, Patton shares stories about covering basketball star Brian Shaw, talks about his favorite athletes, and opens up about the highs and lows of working as a sports reporter.
Patton began his career as a crime reporter for the Santa Maria Times, and then landed his dream job at his hometown newspaper.
He also opens up about his decision to stay at the Santa Barbara News-Press in 2006, at a time when many of his colleagues were resigning or being let go.
“I think God was looking down on me,” Patton said. “. . . I tried many times to leave, but nothing was happening for me. I also felt kind of an obligation to the sports community, somewhat.”
Patton’s announcement that he was retiring deeply affected the local sports community, but his marvelous storytelling will continue.
Patton recently announced that he will be writing a regular column for Noozhawk.
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