By Bob Bridge
of the Bedford Times-Mail
April 2016

Pete DiPrimio is an excellent writer. He is sound in structure, unfailingly accurate and almost always amusing.

He is also destined for the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame.

Pete, currently employed by the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, is slated to be inducted April 10 during a ceremony at Valle Vista Golf Club in Greenwood.

I first met Pete a few decades ago while covering Indiana University basketball and football. He also was on the staff at Inside Indiana when I served as a columnist for that nifty tabloid in the mid-1990s.

He is, sans reservation, among my favorite columnists. Pete tells me what I need to know aobut IU and Purdue sports, and generates a hearty chuckle or two while doing so.

Rather than was on and on, I summoned a pair of worth wordsmiths to detail Mr. DiPrimio’s suave style and unquestioned charisma.

JoAnna Kai Cobb, a local teacher and web designer, met Pete when he contracted with her to craft a site for him in 2009.

“We’ve had a friendly relationship since then,” she said. “Each time he contacts me to discuss an update, he always inquires about me first. He enjoys distance running, so we always have a lot to discuss. He even has some great stories about running in Bedford years and years ago.”

JoAnna noted Pete writes eloquently and without a hint of pretension.

“Every piece he’s ever done leaves me feeling not only like I know the subject, but that I ‘intimately’ know the subject,” she said. “His writing evokes emotions from beginning to end.”

JoAnna and Pete’s brands of humor mesh nicely.

“He makes me laugh all the time,” she said. “I look forward to his posts because it’s either going to contain a good bit or writing, something funny, or both. I’m glad he’s being honored. He deserves it.”

Local author Michelle Adams met Pete while working alongside your truly in the Times-Mail sports department.

“I always looked up to him as a great sportswriter and followed his career hoping some of his genius would rub off,” she said. “So, years later, you can imagine my surprise when I was teaching a Writing for Children seminar as part of the Midwest Writers Workshop at Ball State and there sat Pete in my class. Talk about being intimidated!

“Luckily I was teaching something I knew about – writing non-fiction books for childen. I spoke specifically about how I had broken into the highly competitive book market by writing biographies of successful athletes such as Cliff Lee and Brandi Chastain, as well as celebrities like Tim McGraw and Jessica Simpson.

“After my session, Pete and I talked, and I encouraged him to add children’s writing to his highly impressive writer’s resume. He promised he would give it a shot. A year or so later, I wasn’t a bit surprised to learn he had published books about Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Jeremy Lin, to name a few.”

Michelle believes if you’re a good writer in one genre, you can be equally effective in another.

“I encourage writers to step out of their comfort zones and explore new areas where they might use their gift of writing to touch the lives of readers,” she said. “I always use Pete as a shining example of someone who does that brilliantly. Of course, to be fair, we can’t all be Pete DiPrimios, but we can all try.”

Michelle, aka Peppy Miss, extended her most “cheerleadingest congrats” to Pete for his inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

My kindest commentary on Pete’s writing?

I look forward to his next column … and many more to follow.