Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins has 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 has 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.
This is the eighth iteration of the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. The awards are selected annually by a jury of working sports journalists in honor of the legendary Texas sportswriter and best-selling author, who defined the sportswriter’s craft for a generation. The winners will be celebrated with a dinner in their honor on September 4, 2024 (6-9 pm) and the Headliners Club in Austin. Dinner seats, tables and sponsorships can be purchased now.
The Center for Sports Communication & Media has announced 12 nominees for Best Sportswriting of the year for the eighth 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 (2023). Both awards are accompanied by a cash prize with winners being recognized at the Jenkins Medal Awards Dinner this fall in Austin.
2024 McGarr Symposium
The late South African leader Nelson Mandela famously said that sport "has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair." These sentiments are echoed by leaders of the Olympic Games and the hosts of other global events that, we are told, can fuel economic development, transcend social divisions, and ameliorate violence. Yet, sport also relies on economic and political structures that can stress the environment, exploit workers, and provoke violent political divisions. Thus, the use of sport to obscure political corruption or ethical failures ("sportswashing") is of growing concern. The 2024 McGarr Symposium on Sports and Society addressed all of these issues, and more, on February 22. Panelists for this year’s symposium included Dr. Jules Boykoff (Pacific University), Amira Rose Davis (UT-Austin), Dr. Tommy Hunt (UT-Austin), Dr. Lindsay Krasnoff (Global Sports Diplomacy Consultant), and Dr. Neftalie Williams (San Diego State University), and was moderated by Center Director Dr. Michael Butterworth.
2024 Deford Lecture
Dr. Gerald Early delivered the 2024 Frank Deford Lecture in Sports Journalism on March 27. Dr. Early is the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the African and African American Studies Department at Washington University in St. Louis, where he has taught since 1982. He is a noted essayist and American culture critic. His collections of essays include Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture (1989); The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture, which won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism; This is Where I Came In: Essays on Black America in the 1960s (2003), and, most recently, A Level-Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports (2011). Dr. Early’s remarks reflected on the history of Black baseball in the United States and its representation in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. As a consultant to the Hall of Fame, his expertise helped shaped the new exhibit, “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball.”
Third Annual Politics in Sports Media Report
The Center for Sports Communication & Media (CSCM) is proud to announce its third annual report, “Politics in Sports Media.” This comprehensive study of sports media content in the United States captures a range of audience perceptions and details critical issues in sports media.
The report’s research team includes 15 faculty members and graduate students from the Moody College of Communication. The team was led by Dr. Natalie Brown-Devlin, Dr. Jennifer McClearen, and CSCM director, Dr. Michael L. Butterworth. “Politics in Sports Media” defines “politics” broadly to include references to campaigns, elected officials, and legislation as well as matters of power, resources, and equity. The relationship between sports and politics is neither new nor temporary and CSCM plans to issue this report each January.
Sports communication students from the University of Alabama and the University of Texas at Austin will continue their collaboration around the Alabama/Texas football game in September 2023. Last fall, four students from Tuscaloosa traveled with Alabama Program in Sports Communication faculty to Austin to collaborate with Texas students on writing and video projects to document the activity surrounding the early season game between the two legendary football programs. This activity was supported by the College Football Writer's Association. For 2023, CSCM director Michael Butterworth and Associate Director Kevin Robbins will travel with four UT students to Alabama as APSC will facilitate the student exchange for documentation and content production related to the game in Tuscaloosa.
The Frank Deford Lecture in Sports Journalism
The Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting
The Center for Sports Communication and Media hosts the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting as a celebration of the craft and history of sportswriting. Named in honor of the legendary Texan and one of the most accomplished sportwriters of his generation, the Jenkins Medal is awarded annually at a dinner every fall.