By TIM RATH

Web Editor

The advertising department at Oakland University is fond of touting the professional experience of its faculty. Perhaps Pat Caputo should be on its billboards.

The lecturer of JRN 314, Sports Reporting, has been a fixture in the pages of The Oakland Press since 1986 when he began covering the Detroit Tigers. Since then, he has covered just about every aspect of the Detroit sports scene en route to achieving his nickname, “The Book,” Caputo cohosts a talk radio show on WXYT, 97.1 FM.

1. What do you teach?

Journalism 314, Sports Reporting.

2. Who in your field inspires you to teach?

The late Neal Shine, the former editor at the Detroit Free Press, and Harry Atkins, the former AP sports editor in Michigan. These are journalistic icons in this state, who have taught at Oakland in the past. I know of their influence on journalists. I want to have the same type of positive impact.

3. What is on your reading list?

“American Lion” by Jon Meacham, about the life of Andrew Jackson.

4. Could you describe what you do at OU in one sentence?

Teach sports media the way it is, and will be in the future, not what it was in the past.

5. What is your favorite OU sport to watch live?

Basketball

6. It’s lunchtime and you’re hungry. Have you packed your own lunch, are you going to the OC or are you ordering out?

Ordering out

7. How is your office looking? In other words, if I were a student that had an appointment, would I be able to see around the piles of papers?

I don’t have an office at the school, but do have one at my residence — and it is perpetually cluttered. I like it that way.

8. When is bedtime?

About 1 a.m. – after returning from hosting my radio show, and then catching up on what has happened in sports that given day on TV, the Internet and by reading periodicals.

9. What is the most interesting place that your studies have taken you?

I’ve been to 32 different states, and much of Canada, on assignment with The Oakland Press. My favorite places outside of Michigan are the Bay Area of California and Boston.

10. What do you hope students know before they take your class(es)?

That while I will always be encouraging, I won’t necessarily tell you what you want to hear, but rather what you need to know, in order to become a successful journalist.