Authors

Erica Boeke

What do Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Joe Namath, Arnold Palmer and Erica Boeke have in common? They all formed their lifelong love of sports in Western Pennsylvania. Erica Boeke, the co-author of Gameface: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Love Pro Sports and creator of GoGameFace.com, began her love affair with sports when she and her dad would keep score together at Pirate games at Three Rivers Stadium, and her entire family gathered around the tube to watch the Steelers win yet another Super Bowl.

Moving to Orange Country, California as a teen, Erica earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of California, San Diego, where she met her co-writer and friend Chris De Benedetti. Although UCSD didn’t even have a football team, they attended many sporting events together and began their decades-long standoff over the designated hitter. Erica then landed her first job as an associate editor at the San Francisco Giants Magazine, which she describes as her “favorite job ever.” She spent three years with the Giants, before heading to yet another great sports town: Chicago, where she earned a master’s degree from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

Erica then headed to New York City, where she lived full-time for 11 years, while she pursued a marketing career at various Condé Nast magazines, including Traveler, Details, GQ and Gourmet; she also served as a copywriter forThe New York Times.

In addition, Erica co-wrote Red v. Blue and Blue v. Red (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005), humorous guides to the philosophical differences that have divided the nation during recent election years, and appeared as a politicalpundit on Bravo television. But throughout it all, sports remained a major passion for her.

Despite living in several major sports cities throughout her life, Erica says her first love is and, will always be, the Pittsburgh Steelers. She owns several “Terrible Towels,” has long idolized former coach Bill Cowher and vows (only half-jokingly) to name her first child—boy or girl—after NFL Hall of Famer Franco Harris. Click here to see the depth of her love for the Steelers.

These days, Erica splits her time between the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania and New York City, where she writes and is a magazine marketing consultant. She’s also never too far away from her love of sports and takes herself out to the ball game frequently: ushering for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, a Minor League team in Pennsylvania.

For more information, please contact Ashley Lanaux at 212.529.1598 or via email.

Chris De Benedetti

Growing up in the wine country, just north of the San Francisco Bay Area in one of sports’ golden ages in the ‘70s, GameFace co-author and GoGameFace.com editorial director Chris De Benedetti grew up idolizing the chaotic but successful Oakland teams, where brash, brawny and boozing maverick athletes made as much noise off the field as on.

Chris has been a daily news writer for more than five years, starting with an online magazine called MyPrimeTime.com, which during the dot-com bust went belly-up faster than you can say Bob Costas. For the past four years, Chris has been a journalist at The Oakland Tribune, and its various sister papers in the ANG Newspapers chain. There, he covered crime and schools, and sadly found there wasn’t much of a difference. His most recent beat was the Silicon Valley city of Fremont, which may soon be the home of the Oakland A’s. And in 2006 and 2007, he covered the Sundance Film Festival, writing a snarky daily blog that had his editors calling for a drug test.

A graduate of U.C. San Diego, he also has written for The San Francisco Business Times, Sonoma County Business magazine and Metro magazine in San Francisco. He currently is at work on a feature-length documentary about the business of Major League Baseball in the Bay Area.

A big fan of old-school sports journalists, such as the late Howard Cosell and Dick Schaap, he has always been more interested in the story behind the game than the final score. Click here to see the depth of his love for the Raiders (and hatred of the Steelers).

For more information, please contact Ashley Lanaux at 212.529.1598 or via email.