DALLAS (FWAA) – Six members of the Football Writers Association of America have won two awards each in the association's 32nd Annual Best Writing Contest presented by collegepressbox. Included in the group were three first-place winners who also picked up honorable mentions in other categories.
Past FWAA presidents Matt Fortuna (2019) and Ross Dellenger (2023) collected top honors in Game Story and Column, respectively. Fortuna, now writing for The Inside Zone, won with his coverage of the last Pac-12 football title game last December, and Dellenger, from Yahoo Sports, for a column on the rapid and sometimes weird changes in the NCAA governance structure. Dellenger also added an honorable mention.
The other first-place stories were from two ESPN.com writers, Chris Low, who won in the Feature category with a well-researched piece on the 53rd anniversary of the Marshall plane crash, and David Hale, who penned a story in Enterprise on the curious path of a Virginia Tech football player involved in a murder trial. Low and Hale each had Honorable Mentions in other categories.
Other writers who had two individual awards were Ron Higgins of ShreveportBossierJournal.com (two Honorable Mentions), Alex Scarbrough, ESPN.com, (Third and an Honorable Mention) and Chris Hummer of 247Sports, (Second and an Honorable Mention.)
Said one of the judges: “In all my years judging writing contests for the FWAA, this year’s Enterprise entries without a doubt are the best, most riveting accounts of stories taking place in our world of college athletics by this entire group. By contest rules, I am limited to select first place, second place, third place, with no ties allowed, and then three honorable mention choices. That’s a total of six. I very easily could have selected 12 winners, and I apologize for having to overlook so many great stories, and everyone one of the writers who entered this contest should be proud of their work. This has given me a renewed confidence in today’s sports journalism taking place across the country.”
First-place finishers receive a customized football, certificate and cash prize. Second and third-place finishers receive a certificate and cash prize. Honorable mentions receive a certficate.
GAME STORY
1. Matt Fortuna, The Inside Zone: The end of the trail for Pac-12 football
2. Jesse Temple, The Athletic
3. Matt Baker, Tampa Bay Times
Honorable Mention: Ron Higgins (ShreveportBossierJournal.com), Rich Scarcella (Reading Eagle).
ENTERPRISE
1. David Hale, ESPN.com: The unusual story of Isi Etute
2. Adam Sparks, Knoxville News Sentinel
3. Dave Wilson, ESPN.com
Honorable Mention: Alex Scarbrough and Adam Rittenberg (ESPN.com), Chris Low (ESPN.com), Ross Dellenger (Yahoo Sports).
FEATURE
1. Chris Low, ESPN.com: Fifty-three years later, memories from the Marshall tragedy remain vivid
2. David Barron, Houston Chronicle
3. Alex Scarbrough, ESPN.com
Honorable Mention: Ron Higgins (ShreveportBossierJournal.com), Eric Hansen (Inside ND Sports), Chris Hummer (247Sports), Ian Taylor (Seneca Journal).
COLUMN
1. Ross Dellenger, Yahoo Sports: NCAA creating weird rules during weird times
2. Chris Hummer, 247Sports
3. Ryan McGee, ESPN.com
Honorable Mention: Tom Shatel (Omaha World-Herald), David Hale (ESPN.com), Brian Howell (Boulder Daily Camera).
Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of 1,300 men and women who cover college football. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include game-day operations, major awards and its annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, contact Steve Richardson at tiger@fwaa.com.