By Simon Liang
Daily Titan Asst. Sports Editor

Mike Penner graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1980. Photo Courtesy Los Angeles Times/Associated Press.

Tragedy struck during the Thanksgiving break when Cal State Fullerton alumnus and former Daily Titan staff writer Mike Penner allegedly committed suicide and was found dead in his Los Angeles home.

Coroner’s officials have not yet confirmed the cause of his death.

Penner was a 25-year veteran at the LA Times and most recently wrote a column titled, “Totally Random.”

Those who didn’t know Mike personally only knew him as a “transsexual sports writer.”

He attracted attention in 2007 for his infamous column in the Times headlined, “Old Mike, New Christine,” revealing to the world that he was transsexual and had changed his byline to Christine Daniels.

Penner wrote, “It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words.”

At the time of his confession, he was married to Lisa Dillman, also a Times sportswriter.

“He loved his wife; I really want to make that clear,” said former Daily Titan sports editor Janis Carr. “I think that it was really a happy period of his life, being married to Lisa.”

Upon this discovery, there was shock not only in the sports writing world but also among friends and colleagues who knew him on a personal level.

“People respected what he had gone through and thought he was very brave,” said Rick Pullen, dean of the College of Communications.

In a 2007 interview with the Daily Titan, Penner (under the name Christine Daniels) said, “It got to a point where I exaggerated it – what it meant to be male or masculine. If I’m a feminine person, I don’t want to give that away.”

He added that if society were more accepting in the past, he would have been more comfortable transitioning earlier.

Those who knew Penner recalled not only an excellent writer but also a great person with a heart of gold.

“There was something different about Mike. You immediately liked him – you couldn’t help it,” said Scott French, a friend of Penner’s and a former Daily Titan editor. “So many of the qualities that I would come to love about the man were right there, right at the start.”

Penner covered the football beat for the Daily Titan in the fall of 1977.

Dennis Peck, a former executive editor for the Daily Titan and who worked alongside Penner, saw him as a friendly and easy-going guy.

“(Penner) was covering Cal State Fullerton football at a time when the paper had advocated dropping football as a sport,” Peck said. “The football coach at the time said he refused to ever talk to the Daily Titan again, but Mike still found a way to get him to talk to us. I don’t know how he did it, but he did it.”

While attending CSUF, he worked at the Anaheim Bulletin as a sports writer and then a sports editor.

Penner’s sheer talent and work ethic showed in his writing, which many praised.

“When it came to writing, Mike had just a perfect touch, and he was an even better human being,” French said. “He was one of the gentlest, kindest people I have ever met.”

Jim Alexander, who was a sports writer with Penner at the Daily Titan, said that everyone knew that he was something special, and from day one, his talent was evident.

However, Penner was dealing with some personal struggles.

After he came out as Christine Daniels, French said that he had never seen Mike so happy.

“Deep inside it was still the person that I loved, that really, really kind and really generous person,” French said.

After about a year and a half, Penner went back to his given name and Christine Daniels was shelved.

Many concerned friends reached out to him, but they got no response, French said.

Something was terribly wrong.

“I should’ve been more forceful; I should’ve made sure I tracked down Mike,” French said.

In this time of sorrow, many of his friends have nothing but the utmost respect for the man, the legend and always unpredictable, Mike Penner.

He was loved and admired by everyone who had crossed paths with him.

“If you knew him, you loved him. He could’ve been the worst writer in the world, and we’d still love him,” French said. “It’s about the person, and we’re really going to miss him.”