Ziegel attended Yeshiva Salanter and William Howard Taft High School.
While in college, Ziegel also wrote about high-school basketball for the Long Island Press.
He also wrote for magazines, including Inside Sports, New York, and Rolling Stone.
[3] He accepted a retirement package from the newspaper in 2009, but continued to write occasional columns for the Daily News as a freelance writer.
[1] In 1978 Ziegel co-wrote (with Lewis Grossberger) The Non-Runner's Book, which satirized the then-popular sport of marathon running.