Wright Thompson and Roy Blount Jr. were recognized as the winners of the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting at the 2025 awards dinner at The Penn Club in New York City. Thompson won the Best Sportswriting award for his monumental profile, Caitlin Clark and Iowa Find Peace in the Process, published by ESPN. Blount's Lifetime Achievement recognition has roots with his time at Sports Illustrated as a staff writer, associate editor (1968-75) and later a Senior Special Contributor. His 1974 book about the Pittsburgh Steelers, "About Three Bricks Shy of a Load," is cited as a masterpiece of New Journalism. Sports incon Billie Jean King received the Jenkins Medal Sports Legend award.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”