Yugoslav-born Steve Tesich spoke no English when he and his mother and sister immigrated to the USA in 1957, but learning the language gave him the mechanism for responding to his adoptive country. He attended Indiana University on a wrestling scholarship, but his passion switched to cycling there, providing him the impetus for his Academy Award-winning screenplay for "Breaking Away" (1979) and the subsequent "American Flyers" (1985).Tesich moved to NYC to pursue graduate studies at Columbia University and later, while employed as a caseworker for the Department of Welfare, wrote plays in his
