During his more than 20 years as a reporter for The Associated Press, Jimmy Golen has covered everything from a war in East Africa to the Mall of America. He has worked five Super Bowls, four Olympics, three World Series, two NBA finals and one Stanley Cup. Since settling in Boston in 1995, he has covered all of the area's professional sports teams along with college basketball at Boston College, Providence, Harvard and UMass. He previously worked for the AP in New York, Minneapolis, Buffalo, and in Baton Rouge, La., where when he wasn't covering LSU in the post-Shaquille O'Neal era he was following the wacky antics of the state government, including roguish Gov. Edwin Edwards and many of his soon-to-be fellow prisoners.