Throughout his college years, Paul Pabst tuned in to SportsCenter every night, little did he know how close he would get to the anchor at the time.

“I watched Dan Patrick every single night literally on Sportscenter,” Pabst said. “10 years after I graduate college, I’m his producer, it’s kind of surreal.”

Pabst is an SIU alumnus and a former Daily Egyptian reporter. He grew up in Glenwood, just south of Chicago and is now the executive producer for the Dan Patrick Show.

After graduation, Pabst worked at Pro Football Weekly. He said the editor at the time graduated from SIU.

Pabst said if people want to cover sports for a living, they have to cover everything, not just the teams or sports that they like.

Pabst collected magazines when he was younger and this year, he was reading his article in the same magazine.

“That was my first ever feature article in Sports Illustrated and it was kind of a dream, I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

In 1996 while Pabst was bartending in New York City, two men came into the bar very late and were having a discussion about sports. They asked what Pabst’s take on the argument was and were impressed.

The men Pabst met at the bar worked at CBS and said they had an opening for a sports researcher. Pabst had an interview the next morning at 9 a.m.

“I was so excited,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep if I wanted to.”

While working in sports, it is common to interact with athletes and announcers. On Pabst’s first day at CBS, he met Jim Nantz and Marcus Allen.

After four years at CBS, Pabst felt it was time for a change of scenery. He started working at ESPN in 2000.

“ESPN, it’s just like the commercials,” Pabst said. “You’re walking down the hall and the first day I was there, Jerry Stackhouse was there.”

He said when he started, ESPN could be compared to a junior college.

When Dan Patrick asked Pabst to be his executive producer, Pabst didn’t accept right away. He went to Patrick’s house and watched Monday night Football while they discussed it.

He accepted.

Pabst said it was a no-brainer when Patrick was leaving ESPN in 2007 to start his own project to go with him.

“I love working with the guy,” Pabst said. “He’s getting better every year.”

Pabst said one of the best memories he has working in sports is a Rose Bowl game when he worked with an idol of his.

“I am standing there with Brent Musburger, who is my first favorite broadcaster, my dad loved watching Brent,” Pabst said. “I remember thinking to myself, this is as good as it gets.”

Pabst said college students sometimes want the glamour job, but his example of a productive job is a cameraman. He said it is lucrative and helps people travel the world.

“I don’t think a college student thinks, I want to me a cameraman for a living,” Pabst said. “Everyone wants to be Dan Patrick or Bob Costas.”

During Pabst’s childhood, he said he was more likely to be discussing a sporting event than playing it.

“I was watching sports, more watching than playing,” he said. “Which is most sports writers and media guys.”

Being so close to the city, Pabst is a fan of all Chicago sports. He said he is a Cubs fan because of his grandmother but they aren’t the team he followed the most.

“Bears are my favorite team, I was at the game where Walter Payton broke the rushing record,” Pabst said. “That was my all-time best moment in person.”

When the time came to decide on a college to attend, Pabst didn’t consider SIU at first. He planned to go to the University of Alabama and only stopped in Carbondale after visiting Crimson Tide country because he had a friend that attended SIU.

Pabst said he really liked southern Illinois because it was far enough from his home but not too far.

“Nice area (Carbondale), I thought everything was corn fields south of Chicago,” he said.

During his time at SIU, Pabst said he tried to work as many jobs as he could. He said it’s all about getting as much expierence as possible.

“Everybody you graduated with gets the piece of paper that said I graduated, the diploma,” Pabst said. “But what gets you a job interview or gets you a job is your resume.”

Living so close to many big sports cities, Pabst said it is not always about the bright lights of the big games.

“I’d rather go to Army and tailgate with 30,000 people,” he said. “It’s just as good as anything, it’s about being outside at a sporting event.”

Many factors have influenced Pabst’s life. One of them is the Daily Egyptian.

“It was a real newspaper, it was 32 pages a day,” Pabst said.

The other is Dr. Walter Jaehnig, the former director of the school of journalism. He said Jaehnig gave him good advice about how to become a better journalist.

“The Daily Egyptian and Walter Jaehnig were the two influences from my career down there,” Pabst said.

Pabst lives in Connecticut with his wife and two daughters. He is on the Sports Communication and Media Core Faculty at Sacred Heart University. Pabst said he wants Sacred Heart to be a sports media contender in the coming years.