2018 - Richard 'Dick' Weiss

Dick Weiss is a Hall of Fame sports columnist who worked for the Philadelphia Daily News as a sportswriter covering college basketball and the NBA and was the national college columnist for New York Daily News for more than 40 years, from 1973 through 2013. He has covered 45 NCAA Final Fours, 35 national championship games in college football and has co-authored 12 books on basketball Hall of Famers Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and Theresa Grentz, co-writing the last two with his wife Joan Williamson. He has also written a tribute book to Mike Krzyzewski. He is in the process of finishing up another on the impact of NBA players in the Olympic games and is writing another book with Vitale.

Weiss is the past president of the Football Writers of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Associations and was the youngest recipient of the prestigious Curt Gowdy Award for media excellence from the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Bert McGraine Award from the Football Writers Association and the College Football Hall of Fame, the highest honor given to a college football writer. He is also a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

Weiss has also received the Jesse Abrahamson award from the Penn Relays, the Journalism Hall of Fame award from his alma mater, Temple; the first ever Big East media award, the pre-season NIT media award, the Leader of the Heard award for outstanding contributions in basketball journalism from Fairfield University, the Edwin Pope media award from the Orange Bowl,the Frank McQueen media Award from the New England Basketball Hall of Fame and the Jim Murray Outstanding Sports writing award from the All American Football Foundation. He has served on various nominating committees for the Naismith Hall of Fame and serves on the Honors Committee for the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

He has done TV work for both CNN and the Big Ten network and is a regular guest on radio stations across the country.

He thought about retirement, but couldn't do it. He currently does work covering international basketball for Mike Flynn's Blue Star Web Site, which has sent him to Prague, Dubai, Spain,the Bahamas, Crete and most recently Rio for the 2016 summer Olympics. He also has done work for George Raveling-- Coaching for Success; the Big Ten Network, the American Conference and Basketball Times.

Raised in Drexel Hill, Pa., Weiss lives in nearby Havertown and considers himself a lifelong Philadelphian who attended his first college basketball game at the Palestra in 1959. He has been a regular at his favorite sports arena ever since. Weiss attended Temple University where he played soccer, was the Sports Editor of both the student newspaper and Yearbook, did color commentary for Temple football on the student radio station and was in the Journalism honor society. He graduated in 1970. Weiss spent 20 years covering college sports and the NBA for the Philadelphia Daily News-- the paper he always wanted to work for-- and even when he moved to the New York Daily News, he never left, maintaining his residence in Havertown. He has been married for the past 26 years to his wife Joan, an author who he still considers the best editor he has ever worked with.