You’ll hear a lot about dad-daughter/dad-son bonds this weekend, but the one we’re about to share might take the (Father’s Day) cake.
“Sharing ESPN with my dad over these past two years has been so special,” said Eve Wulf, a production assistant with ESPN Films, “and I really cherish our time together.”
Eve is the daughter of Steve Wulf, a long-time editor and writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, who has been at ESPN for 21 years. She has been with the company almost two years.
Her strongest childhood memories of her dad working at ESPN stemmed from visiting him at “The Garage” in New York, the former offices for The Mag. Steve had a giant Louisville Slugger bat propped up in his office, which struck Eve as incredibly cool – even at a young age, she appreciated that having baseball bats in your office isn’t a normal thing.
And back in the day, Steve got permission to borrow The Mag’s name when he sponsored the Wulf children’s basketball, baseball and softball teams – imagine playing Little League and rocking ESPN The Magazine on your jersey! The Wulf kids — Eve, her twin sister Elizabeth, and brothers Bo and John — must have been the coolest kids in town!
Today, all four of the Wulf kids have followed in their parents’ sporting footsteps (their mother Jane “Bambi” Bachman Wulf, was the fondly-remembered Chief of Reporters at Sports Illustrated, where she and Steve met) to work in the world of sports. Eve studied film with the desire to go into sports documentaries, and here she is with ESPN Films. Twin sister Elizabeth coaches women’s ice hockey at Wesleyan University. Bo covers the Philadelphia Eagles for The Athletic and John works as the coordinator of baseball operations for the Washington Nationals.
Eve said the passion Steve has poured into his work over the years has motivated her to do the same. And in his years at ESPN, Steve’s contributed to many groundbreaking and sensitive features. When I asked Eve to tell me her favorite piece that her dad has written, she said she’d have to get back to me. And when she did, she sent me two.
The first was a feature on the Virginia Tech marching band, the Marching Virginians, retaking the field after the 2007 campus shooting.
“It was an honor to spend time with them in the week before school resumed,” said Steve. “They were dealing with the loss of one of their own, Ryan Clark, yet they were intent on reviving the spirit of the university.”
“I remember just how much this article meant to my dad while he was reporting it,” Eve said. “It remains just as important (if not more) to him now. I have always admired the empathy and elegance with which he writes, and I think this article very much embodies that.”
The second article was a deeply personal feature that Steve wrote for espnW, highlighting how sports helped their family heal in the wake of his Bambi’s passing two years ago.
“The story really does speak to the power of sports in our family. We’re lucky to share that bond,” Eve said.
“It was simply the longest thank-you note I’ve ever written,” said Steve.
When Eve joined ESPN almost two years ago, Steve drove her the 90 minutes to ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters for Rookie Camp. According to Steve, “from my time here, I knew I was leaving her in good hands.” And while Steve mainly works from home these days, he visits Bristol once or twice a week – he schedules lunch or coffee with Eve each time he’s on campus.
Father’s Day, it seems, happens all year long for Eve and Steve.
(Melissa Rawlins/ESPN Images)
