Randy Peterson retiring after 5-plus decades as a Des Moines Register sports writer
The day after Randy Peterson’s Des Moines Register colleagues threw him a party to celebrate his 50th anniversary of working at the paper, the longtime sportswriter opened his laptop and began working on another important column.
As the five-decade milestone had approached, Peterson constantly was asked about the highlights of his tenure. He wanted to make sure he didn’t forget anything he’d come up with.
“I got to thinking that maybe I should write some of this stuff down,” Peterson said.
The stories were part of a retirement column that Peterson began that day. At the time, he didn’t know exactly when it would publish. But Peterson wanted to be ready after that evening celebration in December 2022. So, whenever he had time over the past couple of years, either at home, in an arena or at an airport, he’d hammer away at his keyboard, working on the piece that would become his farewell retirement column for the paper. He's almost done writing.
“I don’t have the ending yet,” said Peterson.
The column will be published in April when Peterson, 73, retires after 52 years at the Register. It will mark the end of a decorated career for the Des Moines native and East High alum. The well-known and well-respected journalist will shut down his computer and close his notepad for the final time after Iowa State's spring football season.
“It’s been such a part of his life working for that paper, covering the sports people in that state,” said former Register sports editor and columnist Bryce Miller. “I just can’t imagine sports in the state without Randy being a part of it.”
Unmatched work ethic established early in Register tenure
His career at the Register kicked off in the early 1970s, when he worked as a part-timer while in college at Drake University. Peterson answered the paper’s phones, taking high school scores from across the state. He wrote briefs on those games and grabbed coffee and punched parking meters for veteran reporters.
When a full-time position opened, he was offered a job, despite still being in college. Peterson accepted, and he balanced classwork and coverage of high school sports until his graduation. That set the tone for a work ethic that remains unmatched to this day. Peterson worked long hours, night and day, weekends and weekdays, doing whatever he could to chase news, follow leads and generate sources.
He's still among the first in the office most days. Miller, the former sports editor, often would arrive early in the morning and hear Peterson, alone in the dark, talking to people on the phone or pecking away on his laptop. Some staffers were still in bed. Peterson had been working for hours.
“As soon as his eyelids opened, he was on the clock in his mind,” Miller said. “He was going to get as much out of that day as he could. He just worked really hard.”
The hard work paid off, and he gained more responsibility as the years went by. By the early 1980s he was assigned to the Register's prestigious college football and basketball beats, bouncing between coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones.
Peterson also covered the Iowa Cubs for decades and wrote about Drake and Northern Iowa athletics. No story was too large or too small. No sports subject was out of his realm of expertise.
“He’s a throwback to the old days of Sec Taylor, Bert McGrane, Maury White and Bill Bryson, those guys who spent their career there,” said former Register president and executive editor Michael Gartner. “They had this fantastic store of knowledge about athletes and athletics in the state of Iowa. It’s like having a brain that is one big notebook, and it just gets fuller and fuller every year. I don’t think there’s any issue in Iowa in the last 50 years that he’s (Peterson) not knowledgeable about or in fact probably covered.”
'Pete' has covered just about everything at the Register
Peterson covered bowl games, NCAA Tournaments and high school state football, baseball and basketball tournaments. He wrote about everyone. He wrote about Gov. Kim Reynolds when she was a high school basketball player. He selected Kurt Warner for his all-state football team. He chronicled Fred Hoiberg's journey from standout at Ames High School to superstar (and later coach) at Iowa State.
Peterson followed golfing legend Arnold Palmer around Des Moines Golf and Country Club during the 1999 U.S. Senior Open. The two chatted between shots and got so comfortable with each other that when the tournament ended, Palmer threw Peterson a signed ball.
During Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz's first few seasons on the job, Peterson interviewed Hawkeye booster Dick Jacobson for a story. Despite the Hawkeyes' struggles during Ferentz's first couple of seasons, Jacobson talked about his support of the new coach. The quotes still mean a lot to Ferentz.
"I don't know if he knew what Dick's answer would be or not, but it turned out in a positive vein so I really appreciate that," Ferentz said.
Peterson broke news, covered games and wrote lengthy features. When the Register added columnists to the Iowa and Iowa State beats, he became the authoritative voice on Cyclone sports, generating opinions and thought-provoking analysis on what was happening in Ames, throughout the Big 12 and across the nation. He could be firm but strived to be fair while tackling all kinds of topics.
"I appreciate the job he has to do, but I also appreciate the guidance that he's given me at times as we've continued to build our football program," Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said.
52 years of building meaningful relationships
Peterson, being the old-school journalist that he is, has always tried to stay out of the story. He balked when media members wanted to write about him breaking his leg during a court-storming at an Iowa State men's basketball game in 2015. An editor had to convince Peterson to make an appearance on "The Dan Patrick Show." When the injury happened, he was so well-known that a fan collected change that had fallen out of his pocket and returned it to him. The injury didn't slow Peterson much. He continued writing from the hospital and quickly returned to games on crutches.
He looked after others as well, taking young reporters and even competitors under his wing. When a co-worker got a tip that former West Des Moines Valley basketball star Peter Jok was on the verge of committing to Iowa, Peterson let the young writer take the assignment. And then after Jok formally committed, Peterson simply passed on the tip and said Jok was awaiting the reporter's call. Peterson even showed around other publications' writers on the road, guiding them through arenas to postgame press conferences.
"He's just built so many great relationships over the years," his daughter Missy Brooks said.
Peterson said some of his career highlights include covering the Iowa State men reaching the Elite Eight in 2000, the Cyclones football team playing in the Big 12 Conference championship game in 2020 and the memorable Field of Dreams game in 2021.
Peterson was selected as the National Sports Media Association Iowa Sportswriter of the Year in 2004 and 2006. Last December, Peterson was named a recipient of the Football Writers Association of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. But some of his best times came from hanging out on the road or meeting up after games with co-workers or other reporters, he said.
A new chapter for his life story
Peterson's commitment to the job often meant working holidays and skipping vacation time. He is legendary in the Register sports department for never missing a deadline. But now he's watching the clock tick down on his career. He said the grind of football and basketball seasons, which consist of long days of travel to and from road games and working late into the night, has made it harder for him to recharge.
"It's just time to hang it up as a full-time employee at the Register and let somebody else do that," Peterson said.
Friends, family and colleagues knew the moment would come, but still have had difficulty imagining it.
"I really just kind of thought he would ride off into the sunset with his laptop in tow," said daughter Katie Powell.
Peterson has made a few post-Register plans. He's taking a vacation with some family members to San Francisco later in the year. The trip, he insists, will be the first he takes where he won't be thinking about work. Peterson said he's also looking forward to being outside the press box on gamedays and, for the first time in his life, doing some tailgating.
His contributions as a sports writer may continue in some fashion. After five decades in the business, he'll probably get the itch now and then. But the Register's sports section won't be the same without almost-daily Peterson bylines. The people he has covered say they'll miss him on game days and in the front row of press conferences.
"It'll be hard not to see him there, but my guess is he'll be somewhere having a good time," Iowa State's Campbell said.
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Randy Peterson retiring after 52 years with The Des Moines Register
