Welcome to Sports Feel Good Stories. Thanks for finding your way to our site.
I’m Mike O’Halloran, the founder and editor of the site.
Editorial Direction
Sports Feel Good Stories started with a straightforward mission: Showcase inspirational sports stories focusing on good deeds, overcoming obstacles, and sportsmanship.
We continue to cover inspirational sports stories, but we’ve evolved to include other topics. Our editorial direction is grouped into three bubbles — perhaps best understood with this graphic.
Where the site started in 2009 is where the SPORTS bubble meets the INSPIRE bubble. Articles like Mike Veeck on Father’s Day, Top 10 Ted Lasso Moments, The Jason McElwain Story, and the Cliff Young Story fall into this category.
As we evolved, we moved into two new arenas:
- Where SPORTS and INFORM overlap, we have articles that provide useful sports information. You might call it sports reference content. Examples include Basketball Terms and Definitions, 43 Pickleball Strategies and Tips, and Football Field Dimensions.
- Where all three bubbles intersect – SPORTS, INFORM & INSPIRE, and WORDPLAY – has become the sweet spot for our editorial direction. Sports Feel Good Stories was the first to offer sports slogans and sports team names broken out by the individual sport in a big way. Examples include Football Slogans, Basketball Captions, Hockey Team Names, and Hiking Jokes.
I’ve always loved sports. I spent several years as president of Magnetic Poetry – a wordplay game some will know from our tiny word magnets on the fridge. Melding sports with wordplay is fun for me. Articles focusing on team names, slogans, quotes, captions, and jokes are a byproduct of those interests.
My recent book, Best Sports Slogans and Captions, which is now available on Amazon, also reflects my interest in sports and wordplay.
I should also note that we cover a variety of sports but probably spend more resources on NFL Football, basketball, pickleball, volleyball, softball, and hockey.
Founding Story
I launched Sports Feel Good Stories on Groundhog’s Day, February 2, 2009.
On YouTube, I watched a Steve Hartman-narrated video on a high school basketball manager with autism, Jason McElwain, whose coach allowed him to play in the team’s last game of the year. Well, Jason didn’t just play. He starred! Jason, or J-Mac to his teammates, scored 20 points, including six three-pointers.
At the time, I was coaching one of my daughter’s basketball teams. In an email to players’ parents, I shared a link to the video and asked parents to share it with their daughters. The response was overwhelming and appreciative. I set out to find more stories like it. I looked for the type of inspiring stories that attracted many of us to sports in the first place.
The idea for an inspirational sports website was born.
Fun Stuff About The Site
Here’s some stuff you may find interesting:
1.) Sports Feel Good Stories celebrates its 15th Anniversary on February 2, 2024.
2.) “Among Giants: Minnesota Athlete Overcomes 70-Plus Surgeries To Join State’s Greats,” a SportsFeelGoodStories article on St. Paul athlete Thomas Bowlin, was selected as the cover story of Yahoo Sports’ online magazine, “The Post Game.” It was featured on Yahoo.com’s home page. Here’s more on the media coverage we’ve received.
3.) Sports Feel Good Stories is a Raptive Partner Site. Raptive coordinates all the site’s advertising efforts. While ads may, at times, seem intrusive, they enable me to devote more time to developing new content. So, thank you for your understanding.
4.) Check out our Sports Feel Good Stories Store. Our selections include practice plans for coaches, off-season workouts for young athletes, and editable award certificates to recognize achievement.
5.) Mike O’Halloran with Sports Feel Good Stories founded the Fantasy Football Team Names Hall of Fame – (Est. 2021). Forgetting Brandon Marshall, Flacco Seagulls, Backfields and McCoy, DeMarco Polo, and Favre Dollar Foot Long are just some of the fantasy football name inductees.
6.) Learn more about How To Start a Sports Blog.
Editorial Staff
Here’s our team that makes Sports Feel Good Stories work.
Mike O’Halloran, Editor and Founder
Mike founded the site in 2009. He has coached many sports, including basketball, for over 15 seasons. Mike authored four books on basketball and Best Sports Slogans and Captions. He has worked as a contributing writer for USA Football. Read more about Mike O’Halloran.
M.J. O’Halloran, Assistant Editor and Photographer
A University of St. Thomas grad, M.J. worked as a professional photographer for ten years. She does our custom photography for the site. With an eye for detail, she proofreads and edits new articles.
Greg Johnson, Designer and Author
A University of Minnesota graduate, Greg has 20+ years of experience working in the corporate world and a dozen years in website content creation and writing. He designed the site’s logo, book covers, and store products. Greg likely did it if there’s a visual that looks great on the site. Greg is also the co-founder of ListCaboodle.
Writing Team
Writers for Sports Feel Good Stories include:
Tim Moodie
Nathan Dunn
Danielle L’Ami
Art Novak
Hal Barnes
And, Many Others.
Social Media
Look for us on these social media networks.
Site Inquiries
Please contact Mike for any site inquiries. Thanks.
Where To Begin?
You’ve made it to the About Us page, so that’s a pretty good start. (I’m told it’s the second most read page on any site after the homepage.)
If you’re looking for something in particular, I’d use the search box on the homepage or any page and describe what you’re looking for, e.g., Football Quotes. You can also just start scrolling down and exploring on the homepage.
Or dive into some of my favorite articles.
- Team Manager Scores 20 points in 4 minutes in first Varsity Game
- 43 Pickleball Strategies, Tactics, and Tips
- The Big List of Basketball Fantasy Names
- Top 10 Ted Lasso Moments
- Fun Basketball Games For Kids to Improve Shooting
- Do Not Consider Fly Fishing
Thanks, and let us know if you have any suggestions.