Mark Bechtel
Class of 2026
The first step to the second spot on the masthead of America’s most prestigious and historic icon of sports journalism began with The Huffman Times, the Official Newsletter of the Brian Huffman Fan Club.
Mark Bechtel was a bit of a young wisenheimer in those days. He had just read how a bunch of similar wisenheimers had created a fan club for Bob Uecker, then in the midst of a career that defined mediocrity.
At the time, Huffman was a reserve on Grissom High’s basketball team. Bechtel created an homage to him, tracing The Times logo from the Huntsville newspaper and offering his readers insight into Huffman’s life and career.
“I just found the first newsletter a few weeks ago,” Bechtel says, “and looking back I’m just thankful Huff didn’t beat the crap out of me.”
Bechtel, who now lives in San Francisco with wife Elena and twin 12-year-old daughters Nora and Willa, is the Deputy Editor of Sports Illustrated and Managing Editor for SI Kids. (Mark and Elena were introduced by the wife of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.) As the magazine copes with the same evolutionary challenges in the business, he is particularly hands-on with the monthly print product, especially the “front of the book” special features, and working with writers on story ideas and assignments. He still has the luxury of assigning himself stories to keep his byline a regular presence in the magazine.
Some of those stories have involved the various woebegone franchises in his native Cleveland, from where father Bob and mother Kay moved Mark and sister Kris as Bob continued his work with NASA. Mark attended Grissom, with that front row seat for Brian Huffman’s career, and whiled away summer months as a flunky at Joe Davis Stadium. Then it was onto Vanderbilt. (“As a freshman I bought a T-shirt that read ‘Vanderbilt: it even sounds expensive,’” he confessed in a recent story.) He befriended a guy in the freshman dorm who was at Vanderbilt on a sportswriting scholarship, leading Bechtel to join the staff of The Vanderbilt Hustler, first specializing in coverage of the Commodores’ rugby team. He also worked in the sports information department at Vandy and was, in 2020, inducted into the Vanderbilt Student Media Hall of Fame.
A Vanderbilt connection to the New York media world helped “just sort of getting my foot in the door at Sports Illustrated. And my foot is still there,” he says. He joined SI as a reporter and fact-checker 30 years ago, eventually moving into a writer’s role with a broad spectrum of assignments, from NFL to curling. He has joked that when editors learned he grew up in Alabama, he must be perfect for their NASCAR coverage. He worked that beat for four years, leading to a delightful read called “He Crashed Me, So I Crashed Him Back,” a book about the historic 1979 NASCAR season that was launched with the famous infield scuffle between Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough.
“One thing about this whole journey is like everything I’ve done has been related to sports,” he says. “My first job was selling souvenirs at Joe Davis Stadium. Then working at the athletic department at Vanderbilt. I’ve been very lucky to have sports be a part of everything I’ve done.
Any mention of Sports Illustrated must be followed by questions about the swimsuit issue. And, yes, Bechtel found himself assigned to chronicle a photo shoot in The Maldives involving, among others, Brooklyn Decker and Chrissie Tiegen. A friendship with the latter led to a surreal moment when he was invited to a party in Manhattan and stood piano-side as Tiegen’s husband John Legend entertained their guests.
The short features in the front of SI that have been Bechtel’s realm for years often hop across the lines between sports and celebrity or society. He recently wrote about Vanderbilt uber-fan Nate Bargatze and covered the filming of the movie “Ford Vs. Ferrari,” hanging out on set all day with Christian Bale and Matt Damon, admittedly being a “little starstruck.” Long way away from The Huffman Times.
-- Mark McCarter
