Selling Hockey Programs Led Alum Woody Gottburg to a Storied Media Career

Sioux City, Iowa -- As a student reporter for Herbert Hoover Middle School, Terry “Woody” Gottburg never imagined his storytelling abilities would someday lead him to interviews with everyone from US presidents to Olympic greats.

“You meet people from every walk of life, and every person has a story,” says Woody, who is today an admired Siouxland media personality.

Woody’s story began on Sioux City’s westside, where he attended Crescent Park Elementary School. The oldest of three, Woody lived on the borderline between Herbert Hoover and West middle schools and chose to attend Herbert Hoover to be with many of his close friends who also attended Hoover. He made the most of his time at Hoover, getting involved in the school newspaper and serving as flag monitor.

“Every day, I came to the office and got the US, Iowa, and Hoover flags and raised them up our flag pole,” recalls Woody, who was surprised with a special citizenship award for serving as a flag monitor for an entire year. “If it started raining or snowing, I got called out of class to take them down.”  

With the approval of their history teacher Tom Tooey, Woody and classmate David Pecaut also formed a fun history activity club called the “Avenging Angels”.

His high school years took him to Central High School, which he attended through his junior year, until it closed in 1972. Woody celebrated his senior year as a member of the first graduating class from West High School in 1973. After high school, Woody attended Morningside College, graduating with a degree in business administration and a minor in history.

A chance to work with the Sioux City Musketeers led Woody to a long career in radio and TV. Woody and a friend began selling programs for the Muskies and later souvenir merchandise. A jack-of-all-trades, Woody went on to design merchandise – creating the Muskies’ first hockey card set in 1974 – and organizing the team’s first fan bus trip to Waterloo.

“They needed a new public address announcer and I said ‘I can do that.’ The next year, they needed a radio play-by-play announcer on KMNS. I said ‘I can do that,’” says Woody. “That opened the door for a variety of jobs in radio and TV for our local radio stations.”

Since that time, Woody has served as both news and sports director at KMNS and KSCJ and worked at all three local TV stations in various roles. He’s also been a radio DJ, playing both rock and country music. And, if that hasn’t kept him busiest enough, Woody has announced games for most of Siouxland’s local college, high school, and pro sports teams.

“In news, I have a little bit of an insider’s view on everything going on locally, and I enjoy the interaction and trust from local government leaders and authorities. Earning their trust doesn’t always come easy, and I value that trust from those who talk with me,” adds Woody.

He doesn’t take that trust for granted, navigating his career by following two mottos: “I’d rather be right than first with a story” and “Where do I go to get my reputation back?”

“If you are going to report something negative about someone, it better be correct. Otherwise, that person has damage to their reputation and so do you for reporting it. I have to be right all the time, every day, in my newscasts,” says Woody.

With an impressive list of interviews which includes US presidents Barak Obama and Donald Trump, along with international leaders such as Poland’s Lech Walesa, Woody’s favorite interview is about hockey – Olympic hockey that is. Woody met Jim Craig, the 1980 Olympic gold medalist, at an event in Sioux City years ago. It was an experience Woody could never have imagined having as a teenager selling programs at the Muskies’ games back in the early 70s.

Today, when you can’t find Woody working on his next newscast, he may be announcing for the Sioux City Bandits. He also serves as president of the Sioux City Museum Historical Association and the Greater Siouxland Press Club, media court coordinator for seven northwest Iowa counties (an appointment by the Iowa Supreme Court), and as an elder for Redeemer Lutheran Church.

Woody is also the proud husband of Lisa, his wife of 30 years, and father to two sons: Robert, who teaches at Hunt A+ Elementary School, and Patrick, who just won the national NAIA football championship playing on the offensive line at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.

A mentor to hundreds of Siouxland reporters over his storied career, Woody says the key to writing a successful story is believing in yourself.

“Be confident in your abilities, even when you stumble along the way. You can achieve more than you think if you keep trying.”