Former St. Cloud Sportswriter Turned Author, Kevin Allenspach

In this edition of WJON's My Life series we examine the life of former St. Cloud Times sportswriter turned author, Kevin Allenspach. Kevin grew up west of Garrison, Minnesota near Lake Mille Lacs and went to high school in Brainerd.

His interests early in life were sports and specifically baseball.  Kevin's father had a construction company and worked for NSP while his mother was an administrative assistant for MN-Dot.  He has a younger brother, Kurt who is 5 years younger who wasn't interested in sports like Kevin.

Kevin didn't have a chance to play organized baseball until the 9th grade but when he did he really enjoyed it.  He said he realized he probably wasn't going to become a professional baseball player but a career in sports could still be in reach.  Allenspach did pretty well as a writer in high school and a teacher helped guide him to the University of Minnesota where Kevin majored in print journalism.  He worked for the campus newspaper, the "Minnesota Daily" while in school.  Allenspach covered a variety of sports and especially latched on to the Gopher baseball team.  He indicated the opportunities with the Minnesota Daily led to a job with the St. Cloud Pioneer Press where he covered Gopher baseball.

Allenspach applied many times for jobs at the St. Cloud Times and was finally hired by the Times in 1995 as their outdoors and recreation reporter.  He later became the beat writer for St. Cloud State hockey for 12-13 years and the St. Cloud River Bats starting in 1998.  Kevin indicated he really enjoyed his time with SCSU hockey and the River Bats but still had hopes of being a beat writer for the New York Yankees one day.  He met his wife, Danell, who also worked for the Times and the two married and have 2 kids.

Allenspach transitioned from sports to news in 2008 at the Times where his responsibilities focused on news and investigative reporting.  He left the Times in 2016 to become a grant writer for CentraCare.  Allenspach was laid off just prior to the pandemic.  While unemployed Kevin was inspired to write the book "Mirage of Destiny" which focuses on the 1990-91 Minnesota North Stars.  Kevin worked for the North Stars that season as a PR/Intern.  The book is available at kevinallenspach.com or northstarpress.com.

Kevin now works for the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University in the communication department.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Kevin Allenspach it is available below.