George Dohrmann

Background and career In college, he wrote for Notre Dame's student newspaper, The Observer.

In 2000, while working at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Dohrmann won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories that uncovered widespread academic fraud in the University of Minnesota men's basketball program. The Citation says,

A few months after winning the prize he joined Sports Illustrated where he worked as a senior writer dealing with investigative projects into college basketball, college football and soccer.

Dohrmann published his first book, Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine, on October 5, 2010, through Ballantine Books. The book was the result of more than eight years of investigative work. The book "reveals a cutthroat world where boys as young as eight or nine are subjected to a dizzying torrent of scrutiny and exploitation. At the book's heart are the personal stories of two compelling figures: Joe Keller, an ambitious coach with a master plan to find and promote 'the next LeBron,' and Demetrius Walker, a fatherless latchkey kid who falls under Keller's sway and struggles to live up to unrealistic expectations." Winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, 2011. Play Their Hearts Out

Career Los Angeles Times, staff writer, Sports section, 1995–1997. St. Paul Pioneer Press, staff writer, Sports section, 1997–2000. Sports Illustrated, senior writer, 2000–2015

Works