
2025 Jenkins Medal Finalists
The Center for Sports Communication & Media has announced 12 nominees for Best Sportswriting of the year for the ninth iteration of the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. The awards are presented annually in honor of the legendary Texas sportswriter and best-selling author, who defined the sportswriter’s craft for a generation.
The Jenkins Medal is awarded in two categories:
- The Dan Jenkins Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Sportswriting
- The Dan Jenkins Medal for Best Sportswriting
The Best Sportswriting award cites accomplishment for a single piece published in the previous calendar year (2024). Both awards are accompanied by a cash prize. The nominees for the 2025 Best Sportswriting category are:
- His Death on a Golf Course Is Inexplicable. His 25 Years of Life Are an Inspiration by Michael Bamberger, Golf, Dec. 28, 2024
- A Racial Slur and a Fort Myers Baseball Team Torn Apart by Howard Bryant, ESPN, April 23, 2024
- After Amen: Sam Bennett Has Learned in the Last Year That Life, and Golf, Are Never Simple by Brian Burnsed, Sports Illustrated, March 2024
- Sports Betting is Legal, and Sportswriting Might Never Recover by Tommy Craggs, Bloomberg Businessweek, August 16, 2024
- The Underdog Life of Josh Butler by Ryan Hockensmith, ESPN, December 9, 2024
- Into the Wind by Laura Killingbeck, Bicycling, May 22, 2024
- In Hospice Care with Electric Blue Hair. And Dreams of a Detroit Lions Super Bowl by Jake May, mlive.com, January 27, 2024
- How to Start a Professional Sports Team, Win Games, and Save the Town by Dan Moore, The Ringer, August 13, 2024
- At the Olympics, South Sudan Challenged NBA Living Legends by Marcus Thompson II, The Athletic, August 1, 2024
- Caitlin Clark and Iowa Find Peace in the Process by Wright Thompson, ESPN, March 20, 2024
- Behind F1’s Velvet Curtain by Kate Wagner, Escape Collective, March 8, 2024
- Barry Switzer, 'The King' of Norman, Is Still Unapologetically Himself at 87 by Dave Wilson, ESPN, Oct. 9, 2024
From Jenkins Medal jury Co-Chair Michael MacCambridge:
"Even as journalism in general and sports journalism in particular finds itself in an embattled era, this year's 12 nominees for the Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting speaks to the breadth, depth and diversity of the craft, as it practiced today. These pieces make us think about sports differently and offer perspectives that we otherwise wouldn't have. It's a reminder why the games are such fertile ground for excellent writers."
From CSCM Director Dr. Michael Butterworth:
"This year’s finalists offer a range of authors—from familiar faces to first time nominees—sports—from football to Formula 1 to golf—and contexts—from the Olympics to the rise of sports gambling. The nominated stories provide readers with in-depth character studies, rare glimpses behind the scenes, and reflections on unique moments. These authors are exceptional investigators and storytellers, and we are proud to announce them as Jenkins Medal finalists!"
Final voting for Best Sportswriting award will be conducted by a jury of sportswriters and editors that include committee members Kevin Blackistone, Kirk Bohls, Christine Brennan, Bryan Curtis, Melanie Hauser, Peter King, Will Leitch, Jackie MacMullen, Kevin Robbins,and Alexander Wolff.
The voting for Lifetime Achievement in Sportswriting will be conducted by a committee that includes sportwriters and editors Chuck Culpepper, Vahe Gregorian, Michael Hurd, Elizabeth Merrill, Joe Posnanski, Steve Rushin, Wright Thompson, John A. Walsh and Seth Wickersham. Nominees for the lifetime achievement award are not made public.
The 2025 Best Sportswriting and Lifetime Achievement winners will be announced in the coming months. CSCM will host an in-person dinner this fall to celebrate the winners. Details about and tickets for that are forthcoming.
Dan Jenkins

Dan Jenkins was an award-winning sportswriter and best-selling novelist whose career spanned more than six decades. He was the author of 24 books—12 novels and 12 works of non-fiction. Jenkins wrote for newspapers in Fort Worth and Dallas for 15 years before he became nationally known for his stories in Sports Illustrated. After more than 25 years at SI, Jenkins was a columnist for Playboy and Golf Digest. Three of his best-selling novels—Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, and Baja Oklahoma—were made into movies.
For a lifetime of excellence in his profession, Jenkins received the Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors Association, the Ring Lardner Award from the Union League of Chicago, the PEN/ESPN Award for literary sports writing, the lifetime achievement award in sports journalism from the PGA of America and the William D. Richardson Award for outstanding contributions to the game from the Golf Writers Association of America. He is one of only three sportswriters to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, and the TCU Lettermens Hall of Fame.

2024: Sally Jenkins, Grant Wahl Celebrated
Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins won the 2024 Jenkins Medal for Best Sportswriting for her profile on tennis legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, "Bitter Rivals. Beloved Friends. Survivors." Grant Wahl won the 2024 Jenkins Medal for Lifetime Achievement for his body of work at Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports and his independent site Futbol with Grant Wahl.
Sportswriters, Jenkins Medal supporters and UT-Austin students turned out for the award dinner on September 4 at the Headliner's Club in Austin. Alexander Wolff offered remarks celebrating Wahl's accomplishments, demeanor and spirit. Joe Posnanski gave Jenkins her flowers for a profile no other sportswriter could likely have landed.

Rhoden, Junod and Lavigne Honored in 2023
Tom Junod, Paula Lavigne and William C. Rhoden were named winners of the seventh annual Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. Junod and Lavigne won the Jenkins Medal for Best Sportswriting (of 2022) for their ESPN article "Untold". Rhoden wons for his body of work (spanning over 50 years) as an author, "Sports of the Times" columnist for The New York Times and currently as columnist and editor-at-large for Andscape (formerly The Undefeated). All were be honored at the Jenkins Medal award ceremony in Austin. Click through for more information on the 2023 nominees and a video of the awards dinner.

Passan, Jenkins Reset Awards Dinner
Jeff Passan and Sally Jenkins received the 2022 Jenkins Medals for Best Sportswriting and Lifetime Acheivement (respectively) at the reboot of the annual awards dinner after the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony also featured medal presentations to Liz Merrill, Rick Telander, Mitchell S. Jackson and Roger Angell (posthumously). NFL Hall of Famer Charles "Mean Joe" Greene received the 2022 Jenkins Medal Sports Legend award.

Distinguished Accomplishment: Angell, Jackson
Roger Angell and Mitchell S. Jackson have been named 2021 award winners by the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting jury.
Angell, who died in 2022, was a senior editor and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he first began working in 1944. He wrote more than a hundred Sporting Scene pieces for the magazine, mostly on baseball but also on tennis, hockey, football, rowing, and horse racing. He is the author of numerous books - many on baseball - including, “The Summer Game,” “Five Seasons,” “Late Innings,” “Season Ticket,” “Once More Around the Park,” “A Pitcher’s Story,” and “Game Time.” The only writer ever elected by both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Jackson received the 2021 Jenkins Medal for Best Sportswriting for "Twelve Minutes and a Life" which was published in Runner's World. The article recounts the death of Ahmaud Arbery who was murdered after going out for a jog. In the piece, Jackson recounts the circumstances that led to Arbery’s murder in Glynn County, Georgia. Jackson’s piece also won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and the 2021 National Magazine Award in Feature Writing.

Telander, Merrill Recognized in 2020
Rick Telander and Elizabeth Merrill have been named 2020 award winners by the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting jury. Telander receives the Lifetime Achievement award while Merrill is recognized for the best sportswriting of the year (2019). The winners will be celebrated in a video compilation under production. They will participate in the 2021 Jenkins Medal dinner and award ceremony when in-person events resume post-coronavirus. This is the fourth year these national awards have been presented. They are named in honor of Jenkins, the legendary Texas sportswriter, to celebrate the craft and culture of sportswriting he personified through his storied career.

Smith, Spain, Sheinin (and Nicklaus!!!) Celebrated for 2019
Gary Smith, Sarah Spain and Dave Sheinin have been named 2019 award winners by the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting jury. Smith receives the Lifetime Achievement award, while Spain and Sheinin are recognized for the best sportswriting of the previous year. The winners will be celebrated and receive their medals at a banquet at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth on Oct. 25, hosted by The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Sports Communication & Media. This year’s ceremony honored the legacy of Dan Jenkins, who passed away in March 2019 at age 90, featuring a conversation with legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, who received the inaugural Jenkins Medal Sports Legend award.

Kindred, Ballard Recognized with 2018 Medals
Dave Kindred and Chris Ballard were among dozens of distinguished sports journalists, faculty members and university officials who attended the second annual awards banquet hosted by the Center for Sports Communication & Media at UT-Austin's DKR Texas Memorial Stadium. NBC Sports broadcaster Mary Carillo emceed the event, attended by Jenkins and his family, including his daughter, Sally Jenkins, a columnist at The Washington Post. Kindred, a beloved figure in the sportswriting community, was recognized with the Jenkins Medal for Career Achievement in sportswriting, for an body of work, featuring stints at Atlanta Journal Constitution, The National Sports Daily, Sporting News, The Washington Post and Golf Digest. Ballard, a writer for Sports Illustrated, was presented with the Jenkins Medal for Best Sportswriting of 2017 for his profile, “You Can't Give In,” a moving profile of NBA coach Monty Williams, enduring tremendous personal loss.

Deford, Thompson Honored at Innaugural Dinner
Frank Deford and Wright Thompson were named winners of the first-annual Dan Jenkins Medals for Excellence in Sportswriting during a ceremony in Dallas on Oct. 13, hosted by The University of Texas at Austin Center for Sports Communication & Media. The national awards, named after the legendary Texas sportswriter Dan Jenkins, were presented before a sellout crowd of 150 at the Pecan Room in Dallas. Deford, a sportswriting icon, was recognized posthumously with the Jenkins Medal for Career Achievement in sportswriting, for an unsurpassed career that defined cultural engagement with and observation of American and international sports. Thompson, a writer for ESPN The Magazine, was presented with the Jenkins Medal for Best Sportswriting of 2016 for his profile, “The Secret History of Tiger Woods.”