'A Night With Peter King' To Benefit Restoring Enfield Sports Programs
ENFIELD, CT — An Enfield High School graduate who went on to become one of the most highly-respected national sports media personalities of the past 50 years is returning to his alma mater to spend an evening with sports fans while supporting a cause to which he has become devoted.
Peter King, a three-time National Sportswriter of the Year and considered one of the most authoritative and respected football writers in America, will be back in his old hometown on Thursday, Nov. 7. “A Night With Peter King,” hosted by Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame charter inductee Russ Tyler, will feature conversation about King’s three decades covering the National Football League as senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He also launched TheMMQB.com, which set the pace for the future of sports platforms, drawing on his access to players, coaches, league officials and others around the game. In addition, he worked on NBC’s Football Night in America.
Upon his departure from Sports Illustrated in 2018, magazine editor-in-chief Chris Stone said, “Peter, in my opinion, is one of the five most important figures in SI history. One, for the following he’s built covering North America’s most popular sport, and two, for his willingness to embrace new approaches to journalism and storytelling, most notably with the creation of The MMQB, first as a conversation-setting column in 1997, then as a conversation-setting website in 2013.”
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King is the author of five books on football: Inside the Helmet (1993), Football: A History of the Professional Game (1993), Football (1997), Greatest Quarterbacks (1999) and Sports Illustrated Monday Morning Quarterback: A fully caffeinated guide to everything you need to know about the NFL (2009). He was presented the Dick McCann Memorial Award (now the Bill Nunn Memorial Award), given annually at the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony by the Professional Football Writers of America to a reporter for their “long and distinguished contribution to pro football through coverage.”
King was elected to the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997, and served as induction dinner emcee two years later. Among the honorees he introduced in 1999 was ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen; in 2016, the pair were among four distinguished persons inducted into the hall of fame of Cynopsis Sports, the leading daily publication for sports media executives.
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He retired from his lengthy media career in Feb. 2024. He and his wife Ann reside in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Despite living in the world’s largest city and having traveled the globe covering sports his entire adult life, King’s heart has always remained in the town in which he was raised. A recent situation involving elimination of middle school and freshman sports in Enfield prompted him to get involved in a grassroots effort to restore those sports programs for the 2025-26 academic year.
“Now I can try to give back a little to the town that is responsible for forming me,” he told Patch. “I was in the first class at JFK in 1969, and 90 percent of my middle school memories are from sports. In high school, sports meant everything to me. When I heard 17 different teams and about 270 kids wouldn’t have sports, I decided to try doing what I can for them.”
Proceeds from “A Night With Peter King” will benefit the Save Our Sports campaign, initiated by Tyler and fellow Enfield sporting legends Bob Bromage and Paul DaSilva.
Tickets to the Nov. 7 event, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Enfield High School auditorium, are $20, and may be reserved here.
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