President F. Gregory Campbell, right, presented Mr. Leonard a Carthage sweatshirt.

Mike Leonard, a veteran feature correspondent for NBC-TV's "Today Show, told a Business and Professional Coalition luncheon Oct. 27 that "I pick my own stories. That's unique in my business."

Mr. Leonard then mixed his speech with slides and a three-minute story he had done on a one-time marathoner's quest to walk again after being severely injured in a bicycle accident.

While some of the slides showed Mr. Leonard with prominent broadcasters he has worked with during his 31 years with NBC, "most of the stories I do are about the Joe Blows of the world, average people living in average towns," he said. "Those are people I like."

The broadcaster then told a story of tracking down a man whose actual name was Joe Blow.

Mr. Leonard spoke about his own youth in Chicago's North Shore suburbs.

"I was not a goofball, not a troublemaker, I just couldn't do school," he said. "I sat in the back, and hoped I didn't get called on."

But, he stressed, "we're all good at something." In Mr. Leonard’s case, that was hockey. After a year of prep school after he graduated from high school, Providence College admitted him on probation. He graduated from Providence, acquiring a love for videography he eventually parlayed into a broadcast career and a business that has produced television shows and specials for PBS, ESPN and other major media outlets, plus videos for corporations and nonprofit agencies. He was executive producer of "Catholicism," a multi-part historical documentary shown on many PBS stations in October and November.

Mr. Leonard concluded with comments about sports and those who follow them, that he said could also apply to an increasingly polarized political scene.

Now, he complained, "a team can't lose without somebody putting them down. What about the other team? Maybe the other team played great, and shut them down. We have this quest for a 'winner' and a 'loser.' It's a negative thing. It's a more judgmental society, it seems sometimes we revel in someone else's frustration."

Recalling when he tried and failed to catch on with a minor-league hockey team, Mr. Leonard said, "I'd never boo anyone, because I've tried, didn't make it, and know how hard that is."