It takes a staff of dedicated journalists to bring you the news from around Central Indiana. In this feature, the Indianapolis Star introduces readers to our newsroom staff — or, rather, we let them introduce themselves. Up this week is Dana Benbow.
Sports enterprise reporter
June 1999
I believe that every single person on this earth has a story that is worth being told if you just talk to them long enough, ask the right questions and listen. The scores, the stats, the yards rushed, the baskets scored, and the records broken are the backbone of any sports desk. But the athletes, coaches, trainers, scorekeepers, announcers, bleacher shiners, equipment managers, team statisticians and mascots are the lifeline of the games. I love telling the stories of people.
When I was taking college classes, the internet didn’t exist. Getting the scoop meant breaking news in the morning newspaper. I fell in love with the old black-and-white movies of newspaper presses rolling, and I loved when the foreman yelled “Stop the presses!” I was in awe of the hawkers on city streets selling those breaking news editions they called extras. Everything has changed in my 25 years in the business, but really, the heart of it hasn’t. We still break stories a lot — just in a different way. We still stop the presses when we update stories online. And we strive to give people that extra news they may not even know they needed until they read it.
Restaurant? Incredible India and its delectable chicken tikka masala with garlic naan.
Hidden gem? The Indiana Medical History Museum, where you can explore the beginnings of psychiatric medical research. The museum is located on the grounds of what was formerly called the Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane, later renamed Central State Hospital. The heart of the museum is a building that is the oldest surviving pathology facility in the nation, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Beach volleyball when it’s warm. (I have a beach volleyball court on my property with real sand brought into Indiana from a real beach.) Acrostic puzzles, a twist on traditional crosswords, when it’s cold.
Anything I can find on Len Bias, a Maryland basketball superstar who was drafted No. 2 by the Boston Celtics on June 17, 1986, then died two days later of a cocaine overdose before he ever got to play a day of pro ball.
“Never give up. Never give in. And when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.” — Doug Williams
Goats. I am the giddy owner of the fabulous Gus the Glorious Goat, a dwarf variety, and his much bigger brother Herman, who is the size of a small Clydesdale horse. But who am I kidding? I also have a handful of dogs and cats who are just as fabulous.
Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Jed. Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shooting for some food. And up through the ground come a bubbling crude. (Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea).
“The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” the theme song to “The Beverly Hillbillies” was performed in part by my relative Lester Flatt of the famed bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs. Flatt was my great-grandma’s first cousin. So, he is my first cousin three times removed. The song rose to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles in 1962-63.
Too many to count. But I once was covering the men’s Big Ten basketball tournament at then Bankers Life Fieldhouse. As we left press row after a game for press conferences with the teams, a competitor male sportswriter asked me: “So what fluff piece are you writing tonight?”
As a cashier and cook at McDonald’s in high school. That’s when we charged $4.59 for a Big Mac meal, and patrons had the option of “supersizing” their meals to extra-large fries and drinks.
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X:@DanaBenbow. Reach her via email:dbenbow@indystar.com
