Legendary sports writer will be honored for his significant contributions to coverage of college football.
IRVING, Texas (Aug. 26, 2013) – Dick Weiss, the influential and long-time sports writer with The New York Daily News, will be jointly honored Aug. 28 by the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) and the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) when he is presented the FWAA’s Bert McGrane Award during the Annual Enshrinement Festival. The sold-out event will take place at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, and ESPN3 will carry the event live, starting at 7:30 p.m. ET.
“The National Football Foundation is proud to partner with the FWAA to present the Bert McGrane Award to Dick Weiss whose award-winning insights have been a staple of the college football world for the past 30 years,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “The award’s past recipients include some of the most passionate contributors to the game, and it is fitting that we annually provide our national stage to acknowledge their significant work in enhancing the enjoyment of our sport for millions of fans nationwide.”
Weiss becomes the 40th recipient of the award, which is symbolic of the association's Hall of Fame and is presented to an FWAA member who has performed great service to the organization and/or the writing profession. The announcement of Weiss being named the 2013 recipient occurred Jan. 7, 2013 at the association's annual awards breakfast in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., before this year’s BCS National Championship. Weiss' name will join the names of the previous McGrane winners as part of a display at the new College Football Hall of Fame, which is being built in Atlanta and will open in the fall of 2014.
"Dick Weiss has always had a passion for college football," said FWAA Executive Director Steve Richardson. "He has strived and succeeded in giving his readership the best stories in college football as he relentlessly traveled the country. Most importantly, Dick has always had a great concern for the profession. Many times Dick has pushed for better working conditions for writers behind the scenes and worked within the system to achieve that agenda."
The award is named after Bert McGrane, a Des Moines, Iowa sports writer, who was the executive secretary of the FWAA from the early 1940s until 1973. Current FWAA President and longtime Los Angeles Times columnist Chris Dufresne will present the award to Weiss.
"I feel humbled and honored to receive this award from the Football Writers Association," Weiss said at the time of the announcement. "So many of the past recipients – Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Constitution, Paul Zimmerman of the Los Angeles Times, Edwin Pope of the Miami Herald, Blackie Sherrod of The Dallas Morning News, Maury White of the Des Moines Register and Dick Herbert of the Raleigh News & Observer – were giants in our profession who gave college football a bigger than life feeling. They made us want to read the Sunday papers. Recent recipients like Steve Richardson, Mark Blaudschun, Tony Barnhart and Dave Sittler have carried on the same tradition. I am pleased to be in their company."
Weiss, a longtime FWAA member, served as president of the FWAA in 2004. He covered college sports for The New York Daily News since 1993 and before that held a similar post for about 10 years at the Philadelphia Daily News. He graduated from Temple in 1969 and then worked at the Baltimore Sun and the Trenton Times before moving to the Philadelphia Daily News. He has covered 40 NCAA Final Fours and 28 national championship college football games.
Weiss has been the recipient of the Curt Gowdy Print Media Award and the Jim Murray Outstanding Sportswriter Award, the latter given by the All-American Football Foundation. Last October, Weiss captured the Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Award at Temple University. The award is given to distinguished Temple alumni who have made outstanding contributions in the media. Weiss is a past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (1993-94) and also became a member of that organization's Hall of Fame in 1997.
Hosted by Atlanta Hall Management and the Atlanta Sports Council, in partnership with the NFF, the 2013 Enshrinement Ceremony marks the first time that Atlanta will preside over the event. The celebration builds on the significant progress made on the construction of the new 94,256-square-foot home for the Hall, which will open in the fall of 2014 in the heart of Atlanta’s sports, tourism and entertainment district surrounding Centennial Olympic Park.
The ceremony will showcase the careers of 24 of college football’s greatest legends, including Charles Alexander (LSU), Otis Armstrong (Purdue), Steve Bartkowski (California), Hal Bedsole (Southern California), Dave Casper (Notre Dame), coach Frank Cignetti (West Virginia, Indiana [Pa.]), Ty Detmer (BYU), coach James “Boots” Donnelly (Austin Peay State, Middle Tennessee State), coach Jess Dow (Southern Connecticut State), coach Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee), coach Jimmy Johnson (Oklahoma State, Miami [Fla.]), Shelby Jordan (Washington University in St. Louis [Mo.]), Tommy Kramer (Rice), Joe Micchia (Westminster College [Pa.]), Art Monk (Syracuse), Greg Myers (Colorado State), Jonathan Ogden (UCLA), Gabe Rivera (Texas Tech), Art Shell (University of Maryland Eastern Shore), Mark Simoneau (Kansas State), coach R.C. Slocum (Texas A&M), Scott Thomas (Air Force), Jeff Wittman (Ithaca College [N.Y.]) and John Wooten (Colorado).
About the Football Writers Association of America
The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization founded in 1941, consists of more than 1,200 men and women who cover college football for a living. 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 gameday 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 or 972-713-6198. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, visit http://www.sportswriters.net.
ABOUT ATLANTA HALL MANAGEMENT
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2014, the new College Football Hall of Fame will be a 94,256-square-foot attraction located in the heart of Atlanta's sports, entertainment and tourism district. Adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center and Centennial Olympic Park, the new Hall will provide visitors with a highly-immersive, interactive and engaging experience using a blend of historic college football artifacts and state-of-the-art, interactive multimedia exhibits. The National Football Foundation (NFF) launched the Hall in 1951 to stand as one of the nation's premier sports shrines, immortalizing the game’s greatest players and coaches as positive role models for future generations. In 2009, Atlanta Hall Management, Inc., partnered with the NFF to construct and operate the new Hall of Fame facility, which will also provide a platform for community outreach, education and character development initiatives, as well as serve as one of Atlanta’s premier special event spaces. For more information, please visit www.cfbhall.com.
ABOUT The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame
Founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame is a non-profit educational organization that runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 120 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame, the NFF Scholar-Athlete Award presented by Fidelity Investments, Play It Smart, the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, and scholarships of more than $1.3 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Bowl, the William V. Campbell Trophy endowed by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. NFF corporate partners include the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the BCS, Fidelity Investments, Herff Jones, Liberty Mutual Insurance, NCAA Football, and Under Armour. For more information, please visit www.footballfoundation.org.
