Today Marks 64th Anniversary of 1st NSSA Awards Banquet
04.12.2024
Today, April 12, marks a special place in the history of the National Sports Media Association. On this day in 1960, the then-National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association held its first awards banquet on the Catawba College campus in Salisbury, NC.
It was just after the folks in Salisbury, with the help of the local chamber of commerce, mailed out more than 6,000 ballots so practitioners could vote for their state's Sportscaster of the Year and Sportswriter of the Year.
Among the first-year winners were those who would go on to be enshrined in the NSMA Hall of Fame.
Notables such as Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal, John Carmichael of the Chicago Daily News, John Steadman of the Baltimore News-Post, Mel Durslag of the Los Angeles Examiner were among the Sportswriters of the Year.
Chick Hearn of KRCA-TV in Los Angeles. Jim Simpson of WRC-TV in Washington, DC, Jack Brickhouse of WGN-TV in Chicago, Curt Gowdy of WHDH-TV in Boston, and Harry Caray of KMOX Radio in St. Louis were among the Sportscasters of the Year.
Lindsey Nelson (sportscaster) and Red Smith (sportswriter) were the 1959 national winners.
Here's a full list of the 1959 state sportscasters of the year:
| STATE | YEAR | WINNER | NAME | AFFIL |
| AL | 1959 | Tom | Hamlin | WABT, Birmingham |
| AR | 1959 | Bud | Campbell | KARK, Arkansas |
| AZ | 1959 | Bill | Close | KOY, Phoenix |
| CA | 1959 | Chick | Hearn | KRCA TV. Los Angeles |
| CO | 1959 | Fred | Leo | KDEN, Denver |
| CT | 1959 | Bob | Steele | WTIC, Hartford |
| DC | 1959 | Jim | Simpson | WRC |
| DE | 1959 | Bob | Kelly | WDEL, Wilmington |
| FL | 1959 | Otis | Boggs | WRUF, Gainesville |
| GA | 1959 | Ed | Thilenius | WRFC, Athens |
| IA | 1959 | Gene | Claussen | KXIC, Iowa City |
| ID | 1959 | Bob | Curtis | KRPL, Moscow |
| IL | 1959 | Jack | Brickhouse | WGN-TV, Chicago |
| IN | 1959 | Joe | Boland | WSBT-TV, South Bend |
| KS | 1959 | Monte | Moore | KFKU, Lawrence |
| KY | 1959 | Claude | Sullivan | WVLK, Lexington |
| LA | 1959 | John | Ferguson | WBRZ-TV, Baton Rouge |
| MA | 1959 | Curt | Gowdy | WHDH, Boston |
| MD | 1959 | Chuck | Thompson | Baltimore Colts |
| ME | 1959 | John | Libby | WCOU, Lewiston |
| MI | 1959 | Van | Patrick | WKMH, Dearborn |
| MN | 1959 | Halsey | Hall | WCCO, Minneapolis |
| MO | 1959 | Harry | Caray | KMOX, St. Louis |
| MS | 1959 | Jack | Cristil | Miss. Football Network, Columbus |
| MT | 1959 | Johnny | Campbell | KXLL, Missoula |
| NC | 1959 | Bill | Currie | WRAI, Raleigh |
| ND | 1959 | Russ | Smith | KLPM, Minot |
| NE | 1959 | Joe | Patrick | KMTV, Omaha |
| NH | 1959 | Jock | MacKenzie | WTSN, Dover |
| NJ | 1959 | Bryan | Field | CBS, N.Y. |
| NM | 1959 | Stan | Gallup | KGFL, Roswell |
| NV | 1959 | Mark | Hathaway | KLRJ, Las Vegas |
| NY | 1959 | Chris | Schenkel | WABD, New York |
| OH | 1959 | Jimmy | Dudley | WERE, Cleveland |
| OK | 1959 | Bill | Platt | KSPI, Stillwater |
| OR | 1959 | Bob | Blackburn | KOIM, Portland |
| PA | 1959 | Ray | Scott | WTAE, Pittsburgh |
| RI | 1959 | Warren | Walden | WJAR, Providence |
| SC | 1959 | Jim | Coggins | WKDK, Newberry |
| SD | 1959 | Bill | Treadway | KIJV, Huron |
| TN | 1959 | George | Mooney | WMPS, Memphis |
| TX | 1959 | Kern | Tips | KPRC, Houston |
| UT | 1959 | Augie | Navarro | KALL, Salt Lake City |
| VA | 1959 | Chris | Cramer | WCHV, Charlottesville |
| VT | 1959 | Tony | Adams | WCAX, Burlington |
| WA | 1959 | Frank | Herron | KNEW, Spokane |
| WI | 1959 | Earl | Gillespie | WEMP, Milwaukee |
| WV | 1959 | Jack | Fleming | WAJR, Morgantown |
| WY | 1959 | Wiles | Hollock | WYO, Cowboy Network |
Here's a full list of the 1959 state sportswriters of the year:
| STATE | YEAR | WINNER | NAME | AFFIL |
| AL | 1959 | Benny | Marshall | Birmingham News |
| AR | 1959 | Orville | Henry | Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock |
| AZ | 1959 | Bob | Allison | Phoenix Gazette |
| CA | 1959 | Melvin | Durslag | Los Angeles Examiner |
| CO | 1959 | Frank | Haraway | The Denver Post |
| CT | 1959 | Bill | Lee | Hartford Courant |
| DC | 1959 | Burton | Hawkins | Washington Star |
| DE | 1959 | Albert | Cartwright | Wilmington News |
| FL | 1959 | Bob | Hudson | Tampa Tribune |
| GA | 1959 | Furman | Bisher | Atlanta Journal |
| IA | 1959 | Bert | McGrane | Register-Tribune, Des Moines |
| ID | 1959 | Al | Barackman | Daily Idahonian, Moscow |
| IL | 1959 | John | Carmichael | Chicago Daily News |
| IN | 1959 | Bob | Collins | Indianapolis Star |
| KS | 1959 | Bob | Hurt | Topeka Capital-Journal |
| KY | 1959 | Earl | Cox | Louisville Courier-Journal |
| LA | 1959 | Bill | Keefe | New Orleans Times-Picayune |
| MA | 1959 | John | Gillooly | Boston Record |
| MD | 1959 | John | Steadman | The New-Post, Baltimore |
| ME | 1959 | Bud | Leavitt | Bangor News |
| MI | 1959 | Lyall | Smith | Detroit Free Press |
| MN | 1959 | Dick | Cullum | The Tribune, Minneapolis |
| MO | 1959 | Bob | Burnes | St. Louis Globe Democrat |
| MS | 1959 | Carl | Walters | Clarion-Ledger, Jackson |
| MT | 1959 | Ray | Rocene | Missoula Daily Missoulian |
| NC | 1959 | Irwin | Smallwood | Greensboro Daily News |
| ND | 1959 | Eugene | Fitzgerald | Fargo Forum |
| NE | 1959 | Gregg | McBride | Omaha World Herald |
| NH | 1959 | Ruel N. | Colby | Monitor & N. H. Patriot, Concord |
| NJ | 1959 | Hy | Goldberg | Newark News |
| NM | 1959 | Carlos | Salazar | Albuquerque Journal |
| NV | 1959 | John | Romero | Las Vegas Review-Journal |
| NY | 1959 | Dan | Parker | New York Mirror |
| OH | 1959 | Gordon | Cobbledick | Plain Dealer, Cleveland |
| OK | 1959 | Ray | Soldan | Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City |
| OR | 1959 | George | Pasero | Oregon Journal, Portland |
| PA | 1959 | Lester | Biederman | Pittsburgh Press |
| RI | 1959 | John | Aborn | Journal Bulletin, Providence |
| SC | 1959 | Jake | Penland | The State, Columbia |
| SD | 1959 | Craig | Stolze | Sioux Falls Argus-Leader |
| TN | 1959 | Fred | Russell | The Nashville Banner |
| TX | 1959 | Blackie | Sherrod | Dallas Times Herald |
| UT | 1959 | John | Mooney | Salt Lake City Tribune |
| VA | 1959 | Steve | Guback | Richmond Times-Dispatch |
| VT | 1959 | Percy | Angwin | Barre Times-Argus |
| WA | 1959 | Jack | Hewins | Associated Press, Seattle |
| WI | 1959 | Lloyd | Larson | Milwaukee Sentinel |
| WV | 1959 | Dick | Hudson | The Mail, Charleston |
| WY | 1959 | Wiles | Hallock | University of Wyoming Publicity |