Editor’s note: The wording of one quote was changed slightly since publication due to a transcribing error.
It has been a prolific career.
With his audience always in mind, it has been a career of service – a rewarding career filled with honesty and blessings. But Mike Gross simply calls it a career.
By setting extremely high standards for himself, Gross has raised the bar for the entire Lebanon-Lancaster media industry. He has become an influential local journalist, gaining the trust of his readers and the respect of his colleagues.
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“I’ve really enjoyed it,” said Gross, during an exclusive interview with LebTown. “I feel fortunate to have had this career. I love being a sportswriter. When I retire, it’s not going to be easy. I’ve been doing this for most of my life, for my entire adult life. I’d be a little silly to think it’s not going to be a significant change.
“I try hard to sort of read a little different than anyone else, to be distinctive. I try to equate it (writing) to the bigger culture. I try to use humor when applicable. I just want to, in a very honest and not sugarcoat it way, tell people what happened.”
Gross, a Lebanon native and resident and a graduate of Cedar Crest High School, is retiring from his position as a sportswriter and columnist at LNP (Lancaster Newspapers). The move becomes official in March 2025, at the conclusion of the upcoming scholastic basketball season.
“I’d say I’ve been thinking about it for three or four years,” said Gross, 65. “I’ve read a lot about people retiring and what happens next. For a while, it knocks them for a loop. For me, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I think I’m going to have to change my daily routine. I’ll have to figure out exactly what works best for me.”
“I could keep doing it,” he added. “Physically, I’m fine. I’m glad to be getting out with the changes coming to our company. Yeah, it’ll (the last day) be emotional. I think it’ll [be] weird.”
But just because he will no longer be writing for LNP doesn’t mean Gross is ready to stop writing. He plans to continue doing “the kind of writing I want to do” – Penn State football coverage, sports columns, and political commentary – and make it available to an audience through a newsletter, subscription format.
“It’s a leap, and I’m not sure it’s going to work,” said Gross. “I don’t need to make a ton of money. I’m going to try it for six months, and if I have to go to a golf course and get a job cutting grass, I will.
“It’s more like trying something new (than retiring). It’s viable at this point because I’ll be getting social security and Medicare.”
Gross has been covering sports – Penn State and high school football, scholastic and college basketball, high school baseball, and golf – for LNP for 27 years. He has seen it all and written about more.
“When you start out in this work it’s because you’re a little bit of a sports fan,” he said. “I’m as interested in sports as I’ve ever been because I love the process. I love the coaching part of it, the Xs and Os, the draft, the player development, and how players get the most out of themselves. The other thing I love is the English language. I think I’m more driven than the rest of my colleagues to tell people what I think.
“I think a lot of sportswriters think in terms of subjects. I don’t think about the subject as much as I do the readers. I’m trying to have an endless dialogue with the readers.”
His journalism career began taking shape when he was in his mid-20s at the Lebanon Daily News in the early 1980s. He quickly distinguished himself as a writer, and during the late ’80s, he was afforded an opportunity to head the Harrisburg Patriot-News’ Lebanon County sports coverage and host an innovative sports radio talk show, first at WAHT and later at WLBR.
“In retrospect, it (sportswriter at the Lebanon Daily News) was a really good first job at the time,” said Gross, a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “We came along when newspapers mattered, and they don’t matter anymore, and we’re all worse off because of it. And it’s a shame. The newspaper business kind of committed suicide, and I think that’s been a negative for everyone.
“I’ve had a long run at Lancaster with a family-owned newspaper, and in that sense, I’ve been fortunate. People don’t read like they used to. People don’t read at length like they used to.”
During his 42-year sportswriting tenure, Gross has covered and written about the Joe Paterno/Jerry Sandusky saga, the 1983 World Series, a Manheim Central state football championship, a pair of Lebanon Catholic state girls’ basketball championships, an Annville-Cleona state boys’ basketball championship, Lebanon Valley College’s Division Three men’s basketball national championship, and numerous major golf events. Those represent just the top of the highlight iceberg.
“There was a point in the last 10 years when I asked myself, ‘Am I running out of gas?’” said Gross. “But I’m not. I got past that. Maybe it’s out there, but I don’t think so. I think I’ve written about 10 million words, and that seems like an insane amount. But it’s just showing up every day and getting it done. It feels like now more than ever that I’m a craftsman. I’m going to sit down and create something that didn’t exist before. I like the idea that it’s a craft, and I’m going to sit down and do my craft.
“One thing I’ve never done in my 40-plus years is writing anything anything I didn’t believe was true. I hate that. It’s just a basic, human integrity kind of thing.”
An accomplished wordsmith who effortlessly connects concepts and ideas with readers, his writing style can be characterized as thorough, informative, entertaining, and thought-provoking. He has earned countless literary awards for his columns and writing, including 15 prestigious Keystone awards.
“I do think early in my career I may have forced things a little bit, trying to be novel,” said Gross. “Just maturing as a person has knocked a little bit off that formula. Another thing is attention to detail and doing that due diligence before you hit ‘send.’
“I tried to bring more to it than other people did. The great Red Smith said, ‘Writing’s easy. You sit down and open a vein.’ Maybe not to that degree, but I tried to give readers some of myself and hope people appreciated it. I wasn’t trying to stay out of trouble. I tried to tell people what I thought.”
And people always listened.
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