"Fade to Black -- Something's not right with Mom...and now, Dad"
Peter Lisagor Award winner -- Best Feature Story 2008
Chicago Tribune, April 24, 2009, Denis Savard a Chicago Blackhawk heart and soul
Melissa Isaacson's last Chicago Tribune column
Crain's Chicago Business, April 28, 2009, Sports biz roundup: Isaacson's new site
Chicago Reader, April 29, 2009, The Lisagors
Chicago Tonight with John Callaway, WTTW-Ch. 11 Chicago.
Chicago Jewish News, 2009 Jewish Chicagoans of the Year.
WGN-TV Midday News Sweet Lou.
Book excerpt on ESPNChicago.com.
Listen to The Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan.
Ed Sherman with Chicago Crain's Business says New book shows many sides of Piniella.
Melissa Isaacson stops by NBC 5 News Today to talk about the story behind Sweet Lou.
Fred Mitchell at the Chicago Tribune talks about Triumph Books' new Chicago baseball titles for the spring: Sweet Lou.
The Tampa Tribune takes a look at Lou Piniella's Tampa roots in Sweet Lou.
TBO.com Live in the moment -- Sweet Lou puts Piniella's career in perspective.
Melissa Isaacson is an award-winning journalist and author whose 28-year career has spanned the sports world and whose work has consistently endeared her to her readers.
Currently a columnist for ESPNChicago.com, Isaacson was the Chicago Tribune’s principal beat writer for the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls during their championship years of the early 90s and later the Chicago Bears for seven seasons. Isaacson was also one of the paper’s most respected feature writers and columnists over her 19 years at the Tribune.
Isaacson has covered virtually every major sporting event, including the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, more than a dozen Super Bowls, the Final Four, college bowl games, Wimbledon and U.S. Open tennis and the British Open. She was part of Tribune's coverage for the White Sox World Series run in 2005, as well as the Cubs’ playoffs in 2003, ’07 and ’08.
Isaacson began her career at Florida Today in Cocoa, Florida in 1983, where she was the paper’s preps writer and later covered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before moving on to USA Today and the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered Florida State University football and basketball and was the paper’s tennis writer and occasional columnist.
During the 80s, Isaacson was a frequent winner in all three categories – columns, feature writing and investigative reporting -- of the Associated Press Sports Editors awards. Among her honors at the Tribune; the Red Smith Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism and the Tribune Beck Award for Outstanding Performance.
Most recently, her Tribune Magazine piece entitled: “Fade to Black – Something’s not right with Mom . . . and now, Dad,” won the Peter Lisagor Award for top feature story of 2008, given by the Chicago Headline Club.
In March of 2009, Triumph Books released her biography, “Sweet Lou – Lou Piniella: A Life in Baseball.” Isaacson is also the author of “Transition Game – An inside look at life with the Chicago Bulls," written in 1994.
A frequent public speaker, Isaacson also teaches at Northwestern University - Medill's graduate journalism program.
Isaacson was born in Chicago and was a member of the 1979 girls state championship basketball team for Skokie’s Niles West High School. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1983 with a BA in Journalism.
Isaacson lives in Northbrook, Ill., with her husband Rick and their children, Amanda and Alec.