Verdi grew up in Port Washington, New York, and attended Paul D. Schreiber High School before attending Lake Forest College in 1963.[2] At Lake Forest College, Verdi worked for the student newspaper, The Stentor, while majoring in English. After graduation, he earned a job at the Chicago Tribune.[2] From 1967, Verdi worked full time for the Tribune[3] before joining Golf Digest and Golf World in 1997.[4] As such, Verdi then transitioned to a weekly columnist for the Tribune until 2009.[3] While with the newspaper, Verdi covered the Chicago Blackhawks[3] and was elected president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.[5] In 2004, Verdi received the PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism and in 2005 was inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame.[4]
In 2010, Verdi was named the Chicago Blackhawks team historian.[1] Amongst other tasks, this job entailed writing stories about the team's history on the team's website.[6] While with the Blackhawks organization, Verdi was awarded the Memorial Golf Journalism Award in 2012.[7] Later, in 2016, he was awarded the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award by the Hockey Hall of Fame.[8][9] During his career, Verdi was also selected as Illinois Sportswriter of the Year 19 times.[1][3]
