Rachel Nichols

Rachel Michele Nichols ( Alexander; born October 18, 1973) is an American journalist and sportscaster. She has covered the National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB), professional tennis, college sports, the Olympics and is most notable for her work with the National Basketball Association (NBA). In 2014, Sports Illustrated called Nichols "the country's most impactful and prominent female sports journalist". Early life Rachel Michele Alexander was born to Jane and Ronald Jacobs. Growing up in Potomac, Maryland, she became a fan of sports during her youth, saying it felt like watching a live storybook movie with heroes and villains, and an ending not yet written. Nichols wrote for and edited the school newspaper at Winston Churchill High School, graduating in 1991. While attending the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, she had summer internships at USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times and The Washington Post. Michael Wilbon, a lead sports columnist of The Washington Post at the time, met Nichols when she was an 18-year-old intern and said "she had supreme confidence." One of Nichols' earliest assignments was to attend Chicago Bulls practices as a freelance newspaper reporter amid the team's first three-peat. After a few media sessions where she took notes and did not ask questions, Michael Jordan called her out to speak. The two began to talk on a regular basis after the exchange and Nichols credited the experience in growing her skills as a journalist. At age 21, she received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University. Career