John Trent is a rare gem of a human. He’s a storyteller, a loving husband and father, the definition of an avid runner, an outdoor enthusiast and as close to a born-and-raised Nevadan as you can get, without actually being born in the state.
“I don’t quite know the secret handshake that folks know if they’ve lived in Nevada their entire lives, but I’m pretty close,” Trent said. His family moved to Nevada when Trent was just four years old.
Trent’s warmth, positivity and enthusiasm are ever-present. He’s approachable and is happy to chat about just about anything, as his breadth of knowledge is immense. But, when you start talking about the ƼӰԭ, he lights up.
Trent is one of the prominent voices of the University and is the University’s unofficial historian. He recently wrote the sesquicentennial table book, “The University of Nevada, 1874-2024: 150 Years of Inspiring Excellence.” By day, Trent is the senior editor for news and features in the University’s Office of Marketing and Communications, but he’s also the author of a number of books ranging in topic from Nevada Athletics’ history to running, writing columns in prominent magazines, and behind the scenes, he’s helped many of the University’s presidents and even a state governor with speechwriting. Here we explore Trent’s background and how he’s become the University’s unofficial historian.
Living in the lands of playa and sagebrush and rubbing elbows with Reno royalty
Trent first stepped onto the University’s campus when he was four years old, visiting his father, John Trent, Sr., who had just transferred here as a professor from Ohio University. Trent Sr. was a professor at the University in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, part of the College of Education, which is now called the College of Education and Human Development, and as Trent says, he was “in the business of creating math and science teachers.”
Trent and his family lived in Stead, Nev., for a number of years before moving to Reno. In Stead, Trent fell in love with the wilderness and wide-open spaces of Northern Nevada.
“Living in Stead gave me kind of an interesting view of Nevada because there's playa and sagebrush out there,” Trent said. “It was a great place to grow up. Experiencing that landscape and enjoying it with friends inculcated me early on with this feeling of what Nevada really is.”
Nevada is a land of opportunity, community and people who truly love to be here and want to see it thrive. Trent reminisced on the people and close-knit community he became a part of by growing up here. The family moved to Reno proper in the mid-1970s when he was about 12 years old. Coming from Stead, Reno felt like a big city with small-town charm.
“I'd go to the Raley's down the street from where we lived and see Senator Bill Raggio wandering around in there, grocery shopping. Other really notable Reno families lived just down the street from you. Everyone was very close-knit,” Trent said. “That’s the Nevada fabric. Nevada is a really special place and from early on I was glad to be here.”
That same experience persists to this day. When walking around Reno, you’re bound to run into people who are influential in the state and probably attended the University at some point. Trent pointed out that the University is almost as old as the state of Nevada itself. There are just a few years difference in age between the two, and both histories are inextricably intertwined in that Nevada fabric.
The University tends to bring people into Northern Nevada. They get an education here and many remain in the community. “You’ll see folks that you knew during your time at Nevada, 15, 20 years later and reminisce … ‘Remember that Anthropology class?’ ‘We had some great times at The Wal!’ And you pick up right where you left off,” Trent said.
"The lifestyle that Reno offers, combining outdoor access and activity paired with small-town community connection and care people give one another sets it apart."
That same pull that Northern Nevada has on students and alumni is similar to what happens with University faculty. Trent explored this as he worked on the sesquicentennial anniversary book.
“The lifestyle that Reno offers, combining outdoor access and activity paired with small-town community connection and care people give one another sets it apart. Once people move here, many fall in love with Reno,” he said.
The Sagebrush, finding love and digging deep
College can be a tough wake-up call for anyone, even those whose parents are professors themselves. Cruising into campus on their bikes, with worn backpacks and sweaty brows, Trent showed up on his first day of class at the University with his two pals, Jim Barkley and Marty Scully. The friends were surprised when they thought they were in for an easy time for their first class with Professor Michael Coray: U.S. History in the Mack Social Science Building.
Instead of an easy ride, Coray reminded Trent and the class that they weren’t in high school any longer and that this year would be much more arduous.
“You find out quickly from really, really good professors like Dr. Coray, that they're going to demand a lot of you. They're going to push you. They're going to make you question some of the things that you believed before. And ultimately, they’re going to make you better. That kind of set the stage for everything I was going to experience at the University,” Trent said.
“He was always a great lecturer. His lessons on U.S. History, as well as Black History, could seem almost like sermons. He took his teaching seriously, almost as an artist would. There would be long hours of writing out his class notes in longhand on yellow legal pads. He fully expected his students to participate in his lessons – to share, to discuss, to challenge, to dig through unnecessary artifice for what really made history become real. He always found truth in the not-so-obvious and in the unexplored or unexamined,” Trent remembered in an article he wrote about Professor Coray for Nevada Today.
Not only would the University help Trent challenge his beliefs and sharpen his skills, but Trent would find his true passion and calling on campus.
In his first four years, Trent earned a degree in education but ended up staying on campus another two years to get a journalism degree. “It took me six years, but it was a really important six years where I thought I knew what I wanted to do when I started, but by the end, I truly knew what I actually wanted to be,” Trent said. By the end of his undergraduate studies, he was determined to become a full-time writer.
The passion for writing was sparked in 1986 when Trent became an editor at the Nevada Sagebrush, the student newspaper. Trent wrote stories on a variety of topics from sports to concerts held at Lawlor Events Center and more. During his final year on campus, he worked alongside a typesetter by the name of Jill Anderson. Trent’s passion for writing wasn’t the only thing sparked that year – he also fell deeply in love with Anderson.
“If I hadn’t been part of the Sagebrush, I never would have met my wife,” Trent exclaimed. The two went on to marry in 1992 and have been happily together ever since. They also have two daughters, Katie and Annie.
Impassioned by his love of writing, Trent was determined to work in journalism. Unfortunately, no full-time opportunities were open at the Reno Gazette newspaper at the time, so Trent went to work at the Review-Journal in Las Vegas for a year. Honing his skills and competing in the bigger market of Las Vegas helped Trent develop as a journalist, and while he enjoyed his time in southern Nevada, the mountains, cooler weather and his favorite trails were calling to him. He missed the life he had come to cherish in Reno. When a sports writing position opened at the Gazette, he jumped on it and moved back.
Trent immersed himself in Reno’s history, spending nearly a decade at the Gazette. During that time, he covered a wide range of topics, including the outdoors, recreation, environment and sports. His work brought him together with old friends, Nevada alumni and prominent figures in the community. Trent witnessed Reno’s evolution firsthand, experiencing both its triumphs and challenges as the city grew.
“The people that I worked with were just amazingly talented and ferocious and dedicated to the craft of journalism,” Trent said. “It was incredible to be in that environment every day.”
Full circle moment: teaching and telling stories at the University
One of Trent’s colleagues at the Gazette was sportswriter Larry Baden. Baden left the Gazette to teach full-time at the University, and Trent was inspired by the way he was able to connect with and motivate students. Baden, it seems, was likewise impressed with Trent because he asked Trent to come and co-teach a class with him. Baden also taught with Paul Mitchell, a faculty member in the Reynolds School of Journalism.
“I didn't know what I was doing [as a teacher], but watching two really masterful instructors, Paul and Larry, that was the best training you could ever get,” Trent said of his first experience teaching.
The draw of the University was strong, and Trent began working full-time in the University’s Office of Communications in 1998 while continuing to teach various writing classes as a Letter of Appointment (LOA) position until 2008. He loved teaching courses at the School of Journalism and looks back fondly on his time and the students he taught.
Becoming the voice of Nevada
Bringing to life the ideas and beliefs of others via the spoken word is challenging, to say the least. Knowing that a person has a set period of time, usually between 30 to 60 minutes, to convey messages, inspire, uplift and change hearts and minds is a daunting task. But Trent has a profound talent for doing just that. Few may know this, but he has become the voice of many prominent Nevadans through the years as a speechwriter. From former Governor Kenny Guinn to various ƼӰԭ presidents including President Milt Glick, President Marc Johnson and current President Brian Sandoval, Trent has worked intimately with each person to learn their style and capture their ideas and sentiments to convey some of the biggest speeches each has given to the Northern Nevada community.
“They all have their own different way of expressing themselves and what they want to say. Whenever you work with anybody, you always want to make sure that it's their voice and ideas and not yours coming through,” Trent said. “I enjoy sitting with the person, listening and learning what is important to them. Seeing their passion come through. Obviously, the critical part of any speech is that it has to say something. Sometimes they don’t realize it, but through conversation, they end up conveying exactly the way the speech is going to read and sound.”
It is through deep discussion of ideas, thoughts and issues that Trent examines and understands the core messages that the person wants to express. Then, as an artist creates a masterpiece on canvas with paints and brushes, Trent takes the complexities of messages and creates a concise and moving script.
Trent’s curiosity, empathy and natural ability to truly understand people combined with his journalistic training has made him an incredible speechwriter. The better the question you ask, the better speech, or really any piece of writing, is going to be, he explains.
“Over the years, I've learned from people, especially like President Sandoval, who has this great ear. He’s an excellent communicator and understands you can't get caught up in trying to sound good with beautiful words because if there are too many of them stacked up on top of one another, sometimes you miss the meaning. President Sandoval is a master at that: communicating clear, impactful messages,” Trent said.
Turning history into pages
Trent has a talent not only for short-form content in articles and speeches but also has mastered the craft of writing novels. In 1998 he penned "Legacy: 100 Years of Athletics at the University of Nevada, 1898-1998." That volume was about Nevada Athletics and the history of its programs.
Trent’s two passions, writing and long-distance running, combined when he wrote his next two books, “Running Toward Life: Finding Community and Wisdom in the Distances We Run” and “Second Sunrise: Five Decades of History at the Western States Endurance Run.”
“Running Toward Life” is a collection of essays and reminiscences from his running life. In addition to running ultra-marathons, Trent is active in the journalistic side of running life and has a regular column in Ultra Running Magazine, the “Bible” of the sport.
“Running Toward Life kind of touches on a lot of the columns that I've written over the years in ultra-running and some of the experiences that I've had as an ultra-runner. I've been a runner since 1976, and I've been an ultra-runner for almost 30 years. And it's grown from this thing where I was just out running big races to where my family got involved with it,” Trent said.
Trent’s enthusiasm and joy is contagious. Both of Trent’s daughters, Annie and Katie, now in their thirties, are ultra-marathon runners, and his wife, Jill, has also run 100-mile races.
“Second Sunrise” is a 50-year history of the Western States Endurance Run, which is one of the oldest 100-mile trail runs in the world. It started in 1974, and Trent has done that race eleven times and serves on the board of trustees for that race.
A marathon of a project: writing the sesquicentennial book
Knowing Trent well and recognizing his talent as a storyteller, author and historian, University President Brian Sandoval asked Trent to write a book about the sesquicentennial history of the University.
It was its own version of a marathon – Trent wrote the volume in a short four months, working long hours. He felt he was summoning the spirit of some of the people who helped shape the Nevada fabric during the early years of the University, like Hannah Clapp, the first faculty member who was a woman in a male-dominated field.
Trent was very grateful for the help he received while working on the book from the University Libraries.
“When I told Catherine [Cardwell, dean of University Libraries,] about this book, she was a huge champion of it, as well. I got to work with super talented people like Maggie Ressel and Laura Rocke, a superb archivist who knew where all the great photos were from the University over the years. Laura was able to look at the manuscript and match parts of the book with the photos,” Trent said. “The process of writing the book and that teamwork and collaboration I experienced are emblematic of the themes of the book.”
“It was really sustaining to know that the people I was writing about had all worked toward a common good.”
Part of the joy Trent experienced while working on the book came from getting to write about individuals he knew personally throughout his time at Nevada. Writing a book in four short months is an immense undertaking, but Trent found the content of the book encouraging.
“It was really sustaining to know that the people I was writing about had all worked toward a common good.”
Capturing the true spirit of Nevada was important to him. While he got to write about the best and most inspiring moments in the University’s history, he was sure to include those moments where mistakes were made. For instance, Trent wrote about the football team in the 1940s. Nevada was one of the first teams in the country to proudly have Black and white athletes competing together and sent a larger message to the country, but while the campus was welcoming, there were still a lot of people in Reno who did not embrace that same spirit and made life difficult for others. The book touches on both the good and the bad of the University and Reno’s history.
“There's always more work that needs to be done on our campus, but the tenacity of the students to speak up when they don’t agree is something that is always reassuring,” Trent said.
Inextricably intertwined – the University and Reno’s connection
The University and the city of Reno are separated in age by less than a decade. Throughout history, the two have influenced one another, but Trent says that relationship is stronger now than it has ever been.
The new symbolism of the University’s relationship with the city of Reno is hard to miss. The Gateway Project, including the recent renaming of a stretch of Ninth Street, connecting downtown Reno with the campus to “University Way” highlights this bond. Additionally, the brand-new business building, set to be completed in 2025, will leave a lasting legacy. Trent predicts that even in 50 years, it will continue to serve as an introduction to the campus for many.
Part of the reason the connection shines so brightly now is that the University knows its purpose now, Trent thinks. Through his research and personal connections with influential Nevadans and university presidents, Trent has unique insight into how leaders have grappled with the question of who the University of Nevada is.
“If you don’t know who you are, how can you explain it to anyone else?” Trent poses. “A lot of our presidents have grappled with who we are, but we know the answer now better than ever before.
“When Joe Crowley gave his investiture speech when he became president in 1979, he said something to the effect of ‘one of the challenges that we continue to have on this campus is not only do we need to explain what we do to the community, we need to explain it to ourselves.’ We have to have a better understanding of why we are here and why are we doing this work.
“So, from that moment on until today, I think the University has been working on answering the why we're here. I think we have a better understanding now than ever before, why this work is so important. Thus, the community has a better understanding of our why as well. We have realized that our why is about our people. The type of people, those with the Nevada fabric, who stand up for what they believe, even in the face of adversity, and who embrace challenges. It’s those people the University produces. We have a really firm understanding that our people are our greatest capital and that is what we share with the world. That’s why we’re having a big impact now.”
Trent certainly has been one of the great products of the University and he embodies The Wolf Pack Way through and through with his appreciation for others, willingness to serve and his efforts to create good in this world.
Trent’s book, “The University of Nevada, 1874-2024: 150 Years of Inspiring Excellence” can be purchased as both hardcover and as an eBook through the and .
