JACKIE MACMULLAN

Biography

Jackie MacMullan joined Sports Illustrated as a senior writer in January 1996. Regarded as one of the nation's top NBA writers, she is the author of SI's pro basketball notes column, "Inside the NBA.."

Before joining SI, MacMullan spent 13 years at the Boston Globe. She began working at the daily as an intern in the summer of 1982. In December of that same year MacMullan was hired in the sports department and was soon reporting on college basketball. In 1988 MacMullan shifted her beat to pro basketball. She also served as an NBA television reporter for ESPN from 1990 to 1995.

While working the hardwood courts of the NBA, she has received numerous awards for journalistic talent, including several Associated Press Sports Editors Awards and the Tufts University Distinguished Achievement Award. In April of this year MacMullan was given the 1997 New England Women's Leadership Award on behalf of her involvement with children in the Boston area.

Born in Hempstead, New York, MacMullan grew up the middle of three girls in Westwood, Massachusetts, a town just south of Boston. She went on to study English at the University of New Hampshire, where she was a star player on the women's basketball team and sports editor of the student paper. Upon her graduation in 1982 she was given the Robert E. Perry award as UNH's top female student-athlete.

MacMullan recalls the life of former Boston Celtic star Reggie Lewis as the most significant story she has covered as a sports journalist. Having followed Lewis from his freshman days at Northeastern University to his tragic death as a Celtic, MacMullan developed a close relationship with Lewis and found the circumstances surrounding his short life personally moving.

MacMullan currently resides in Massachusetts, with her husband Michael Boyle and their two children. She is active in several charitable organizations, including the Huntington's Disease Society of America and The Pan-Mass Challenge, which benefits Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.