Scott Fowler and Michael Jordan share a laugh during an interview in a remote corner of the Smith Center (Photo by Robert Crawford)

Scott Fowler is a national award-winning sports columnist for The Charlotte Observer, the largest newspaper in the Carolinas. He has written for The Observer since 1994. Many of his columns also appear in The Observer’s sister newspapers -- The (Raleigh) News and Observer and The Columbia (S.C.) State.

Scott has authored or co-authored five books, the most recent an oral history of the UNC basketball program called “What It Means To Be a Tar Heel” (published in October 2010 by Triumph Books) that you can order here.

A native of Spartanburg, S.C., Scott graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina in 1987.

He worked for three years from 1987-90 covering the University of Kentucky sports teams – primarily Kentucky basketball – for The Louisville Courier-Journal. He then took a job with The Miami Herald and covered the NFL’s Miami Dolphins for most of three seasons, writing about teams led by head coach Don Shula and quarterback Dan Marino.

In 1994, Scott moved back closer to home to write for The Charlotte Observer’s sports section. Scott and his colleague Charles Chandler combined to cover the Carolina Panthers on a day-to-day basis during the squad’s early seasons. They also co-wrote a regional bestseller called "Year of the Cat" (1997, Simon & Schuster).

Scott followed that book with "Tales from the Carolina Panthers Sideline" (2004); "North Carolina Tar Heels: Where Have You Gone?" (2005); and "Jimmy Black's Tales from the Tar Heels" (2006), which was the story of the 1982 UNC championship team written in collaboration with its senior point guard. Information on all of those books is available on this website and autographed copies can be purchased. If you want an unsigned copy, amazon.com or bn.com are both good sources.

In 1999, Ron Green retired as a Charlotte Observer sports columnist and Scott was promoted into that job. He now maintains a close connection with the Panthers, focusing many of his columns on the team and its players, but also now covers college basketball, NASCAR, the Olympics and many other sports. He occasionally also writes columns about fatherhood.

Scott’s newspaper work has won more than a half-dozen national awards and a collection of some of his favorite stories can be found on this website. He has made several appearances on ESPN’s "Outside the Lines" and serves as a frequent guest on sports-radio talk shows. He also was an on-camera presence in a 2009 HBO documentary about the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry.

Scott and his wife Elise live with their four children in North Carolina. He welcomes your e-mails at ScottFowlerBooks@aol.com.