Meet Dana Hunsinger Benbow, a star sports reporter in Indianapolis

Our dedicated staff of journalists bring you news from around Central Indiana. In this feature, the Indianapolis star introduces readers to newsroom staff. Or rather, let them introduce themselves. This week is Dana Benbow.

What is your position?

Sports Enterprise Reporter

When did you join Indystar?

June 1999

What is your favorite part of your job?

I believe that each and every one on this planet has a story worthy of being told that you’ve only been talking to them long enough. Ask the right questions and ask them. Scores, statistics, yards rush, baskets score, and broken records are the backbone of the sports desk. But athletes, coaches, trainers, scorekeepers, announcers, bleachers, equipment managers, team statisticians, mascots are the game’s lifeline. I love telling people’s stories.

Why journalism?

When I was taking university classes, the internet didn’t exist. Getting a scoop meant breaking the news in the morning newspaper. I fell in love with an old black and white film with newspaper reports lying around, and when Foreman yelled, “Stop the press!”, I loved it. I was in awe of the hawks on the streets of the city selling broken news editions they called extras. Everything has changed in my 25 years, but in reality, it’s not at the heart of it. We still break a lot of stories – just in a different way. When we update our stories online, we still stop pressing. And we try to give people extra news that they may not even know they don’t need until they read it.

What are your favorite indie area restaurants and hidden gems?

restaurant? Incredible India and its delicious chicken tikka masala and garlic naan.

A hidden gem? The Indiana History Museum allows you to explore the beginnings of psychiatric research. The museum is located on the premises of what was previously known as the Central Hospital of Indiana, and was later renamed Central State Hospital. The museum’s heart is the building, the oldest surviving pathology facility in the country, and is located on the historic National Register.

What do you do to relax from a stressful job?

When it’s warm, I play beach volleyball. (My property has a real sandy beach volleyball court brought to Indiana from the real beach.) Accrostic puzzles, a traditional crossword twist when it’s cold.

What are you reading or streaming?

Everything you can find at Maryland basketball superstar Lenbias, drafted second-placed by the Boston Celtics on June 17, 1986, died of a cocaine overdose two days later.

What is your favorite quote?

“Never give up. Never give up. And when the advantage is ours, may we be able to have the ability to handle victory with the dignity that absorbed losses.” – Doug Williams

Do you like dogs and cats?

goat. I am the size of a small Clydesdale horse, the owner of the great gas, the glorious goat, the dizziness of the dwarf kind, and his much larger brother Herman. But who’s kidding me? There are also dogs and cats that are just as great.

What are you surprised people have learned about you?

Listen to the guy named Jed. The poor climber barely fed his family. Then one day he was shooting for some food. And then there’s crude oil that bubbles out of the ground. (Oil, i.e. black gold, Texas Tea).

The theme songs for “The Ballad of Jed Clampett”, “The Beverly Hillbillies” were partially performed by my relative Leicester Flats of the famous Bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs. The flat was my great grandmother’s first cousin. So he was my first cousin and was deleted three times. The song came to number one on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles from 1962-63.

What is the most despicable tweet that has been directed at you so far?

It’s too many to count. However, I used to cover the Men’s Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the time Bunkers Life Field House. When I left Pressrow after a press conference match with the team, a male sports writer from a competitor asked me: “So, what kind of fluff pieces are you writing tonight?”

How did you make your first dollar?

As a cashier, I cook at McDonald’s in high school. At that time we charged $4.59 for a large MAC meal, and the patron had the option to “superize” the meal.

X: Follow Indystar Sports reporter Dana Benbow at @danabenbow. Please contact her by email: dbenbow@indystar.com