When Detroit sports columnist and radio personality Terry Foster was a child, he could never sleep through night, always waking up at 4 or 5 a.m. He’d occupy himself by reading the sports section of the Detroit Free Press and thinking of ways he’d want to improve it. “I was always that kid who was curious and asked a lot of questions, which, looking back, was probably really annoying,” Foster said, laughing.
As a result, he decided to create his own newspaper, The Vancouver Times, which had a circulation of five (yes, five) homes on Vancouver Street in Detroit. “I’d walk with my neighbor Mrs. Wilson down to the bus stop and ask her where she’s going, ask her when she’s returning and then meet up with her at the bus stop again to walk back to her house to talk about what she did downtown that day. Her going to J.L. Hudson’s and buying a dress and a hat would be my lead story. And since I couldn’t draw, I’d have a friend of mine draw Mrs. Wilson for the front page and sell each issue for a penny. I’d deliver them, too.”
With an obvious passion for reporting and writing starting at an early age, it wasn’t surprising that Foster ended up attending Central Michigan University to pursue journalism and contributing weekly stories to the Freep throughout undergrad. Since then, he’s covered a variety of sports stories, including Detroit sports teams, Super Bowls, basketball championships and more. He’s most known for co-hosting Valenti and Foster on WXYT-FM The Ticket, a sports radio station, with Mike Valenti for 13 years until his retirement.
Although not sports-related, he said his most memorable and impactful coverage was on Lisa Gunn, a teenager who attended Harper Woods Regina High School and committed suicide during her first of college in the 80s. “I wrote a column about giving life a second chance,” he explained. “It was penned as a letter to Lisa but was directed at teenagers who struggled.” After the column was published, he spoke at a career day at Macomb Community College where he kept noticing a girl with black eye shadow and dressed in all black. “She told me she read my column on Lisa Gunn, and even though she had problems in her life and thought about suicide, she’s decided to give life a second chance. My body turned cold, I had goosebumps and I think the hair even rose on my arm. I’ve always been curious what happened to that girl.”
In 2016, Foster had a stroke. “I woke up one morning and felt a little woozy,” he described. “When I was trying to write something on Twitter, I couldn’t write anything, and my right hand kept falling on the keyboard. I then went to do radio, and it sounded like I had been drinking, only to later find out from my doctor that I had a stroke. I was totally caught off guard as I thought I had the flu.” Learning from his experience, Foster said that if a person feels out of sorts, they should get medical treatment right away and not try to “gut through it.” He also advised to not be like hw he used to be and instead always attend doctor appointments.
In order for him to fully recover, his doctors said he needed to continue doing things that make him happy. Foster, now 62, spends his days blogging on terryfoster.blog, filling in on podcasts and teaching sports broadcasting and writing to both middle and high school students. Since 1994, he and his wife Adrienne have been residents of West Bloomfield. Besides living in close proximity to Jewish delis, Foster said he enjoys West Bloomfield’s parks, especially the summer concerts. His son, Brandon, was a freshman at Michigan State University this year, and his daughter, Celine, will be graduating from Stanford this month.
“I’m so thankful I have a life where I can joke around with my kids and joke around with my wife,” Foster said. “When my kids say, ‘Dad, I love you.,’ it means way more to me now than it did before. Today wasn’t guaranteed.”
