Biography of Mitch Albom (1958-)

Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom was born in New Jersey in 1958, the second of three children. He grew up loving music and taught himself to play piano. In fact, throughout his teenage years, he played in bands. Albom graduated high school after his junior year and then attended Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he majored in Sociology. After graduation, he continued to explore the world and his love of music, performing in Europe and the United States. However, while living in New York in his 20s, Mitch took an interest in journalism and volunteered to work for a local weekly paper, the Queens Tribune. This piqued his interest in the craft, so he attended graduate school, earning a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, followed by an MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. Never forgetting his musical roots, he paid part of his tuition by working as a piano player.

Following his academic career, Albom took on full-time writing, working as a freelance sports journalist in New York for publications such as Sports Illustrated and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He moved to Detroit in 1985, where he was a sports writer for the Detroit Free Press. He was able to use his talents in multiple forms of media, working in newspapers, radio, and television. He currently hosts a daily talk show on radio show and appears regularly on ESPN's Sports Reporters and SportsCenter.

Albom, who married Janine Sabino in 1995, is the author of four novels. Three of them have been turned into TV movies, including Tuesdays with Morrie, which was produced by Oprah Winfrey in 1999.