Skip Bayless was born on the 4th of December in the year 1951, which makes him 64 years of age; his zodiac sign is Sagittarius. Skip is a very popular sports columnist and is a popular television personality. Skip's birth name is John Edward Bayless, the second. He was born in Oklahoma in the American state of Oklahoma. John Sr., his father, gave him a nickname Skip and that became his actual name as his parents never addressed him with the name John. Skip's parents operated and owned a restaurant in the city, and their barbeque was the speciality of the restaurant. Skip started working there at a very young age but never thought of taking over the restaurant business in the future. Rick Bayless, his brother was the one who followed his family tradition by taking over the restaurant and becoming a chef. Skip was very good at basketball and played for the school team. On the encouragement of his school teacher, Skip became the columnist of the newspaper published by his school where he catered to the sports section and this is where his love for sports writing began.
Career
Delving deeper into his biography, Skip Bayless, started off a career in the print media. Skip was a part of The Miami Herald. There he used to write on sports topics and features related to it. In the year 1976, he was hired by Los Angeles Times, where he wrote investigative stories about sports persons and their careers. In the year 1977, for his amazing writing for Seattle Slew's Triple Crown winning, he got Eclipse Award.
When Bayless was 26 he started working for The Dallas Morning News and wrote many popular sports columns and after 3 years he joined the rival newspaper Dallas-Times-Herald where he continued to entertain his readers with his penchant for sports writing. The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association voted Skip to be the Texas Sportswriter of the year for 1979, year 1984 and year 1986.
1989 turned to be another fruitful year in Skip's career when he launched his very 1st book, named God's Coach: The Hymns Hype and Hypocrisy of Tom Landry's Cowboys, which was based on the Tom Landry's Cowboys and their career rise and falls. He went on to write a number of sports books as well, The Boys: The untold stories of the Dallas Cowboys season of the edge, Hellbent: The crazy truth about the Win or Else Dallas Cowboys, are to name the few.
1998 saw another career turning point when he left Dallas after a long seventeen years and joined the popular daily Chicago Tribune. During his tenure with the newspaper he went on to won a number of accolades, like Lisagor Award. He was also voted as Illinois sports writer for that year and in 2001, he left Chicago tribune.
His television career
Apart from being a sportsperson and an exceptional writer, the multifaceted Skip Bayless is also a very good broadcaster. In the year 1989, as a panelists he joined Dick Schaap in The-Sports-reporters which was telecasted on ESPN. Later he used to appear regularly on the show on Sunday morning. In 1999 - 2000 he was one of the commentators at a Channel showing Golf and worked during the major championship matches. He also regularly appeared on Jim Rome's sports show which was telecasted on the channel Fox Sports Net, named The Last Word. Skip frequently appeared at other important sports TV shows, like The Best Damn Sports Show Period, Rome is Burning, SportsCenter etc. In 2004, he was hired full-time by ESPN for The-Denver-Post, along with Woody Paige, where they churned up one exciting sports column after another. On April 26th, 2016, Bayless made it clear that he has left ESPN after which he would be joining Fox Sports as soon as his contract expired in August.
Films
Skip Bayless was such a famous personality because of his sports knowledge that even filmmakers approached him for his input. He along with Jay Crawford and Woody Paige did a cameo for the movie, "Rocky Balboa," in the year 2006. The three gave a very natural performance in the little minute footage they got in the movie. He also appeared in "Pony Express" in 2010. This movie was made by ESPN 30 for 30 films. In 2011, he also put his footprints in ESPNU documentary name "Herschel" which was based on the Georgian University supporting the player Herschel Walker.
Other awards
Oklahoma City Wall of Fame selected him as an outstanding member of alumni of the city schools in Oklahoma. In the year 2009, Skip was taken as a member of the very first class of Vanderbilt-Student-Media-Hall-of-Fame. In the year 2012 Skip was awarded twice. He got Sports-Emmy-Award for Studio Analyst. He got Webby’s People’s-voice-award for video remix category.
His family life
It is told that Skip was in love with a girl during his school time and ended up marrying her as well, however, reports suggest that the marriage did not last very long and the couple called it quits. Some people suggest that the reason behind the divorce was the fact, that Skip never allowed anybody to enter his world and always kept to himself. This character trait of his did not go down to well with his wife after which the two got divorced. Later Skip met Ernestine Sclafani who happened to be a very well-known and famous publicist. The two hit it off really well because they shared a similar interest in writing. Skip and Ernestine shared a very strong bond, as both were somehow attached to the print media. Skip did not reveal much about his girlfriend, but the media was actively talking about the two of them dating. She threatened separation, because of his aloof nature and some say also because of his superstition. He accepted that not being able to give enough time to the women in his life was a mistake he committed time and again. Some reports suggest that the two even lived together in New York. Skip seems to be smitten by her and always mouths innumerable praise for her. He has said in various interviews time and again, that Earnestine is a very strong willed woman and that has always impressed him. The two seem to be very much in love and some suggest that the two are even married.
Reference:
Ernestine Sclafani Skip Bayless’s wife: http://fabwags.com/ernestine-sclafani-skip-bayless-wife/
Skip Bayless lying about his girlfriend: https://boxden.com/showthread.php?t=1897203
Skip Bayless: http://odssf.com/biography/skip-bayless
Skip Bayless: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_Bayless