University of Tennessee Athletics
HARRIS AND MANNING SELECTED AS PART OF CHARTER TSWA HALL OF FAME CLASS
January 30, 2006 | General
Jan. 30, 2006
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - University of Tennessee athletic department legends Haywood Harris and Gus Manning have been elected as part of the 16 charter members to the Tennessee Sports Writers Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame recipients come from either the newspaper or sports information field, which comprises the membership of the organization. The organization voted at its 2005 convention to elect up to 16 members to comprise the charter class.
Harris was appointed by Gen. Robert Neyland as sports information director in Jan. 1961 and retired in 2000. He came to the University after having worked at The Charlotte Observer and The Knoxville Journal, but served UT as Sports Information Director, Assistant Athletic Director and Associate Athletic Director of Media Relations.
In 1982, Inside Sports magazine listed Harris as one of the top five publicists in the nation. He was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America's Hall of Fame in 1984 and received the organization's top award, the Arch Ward Award, in 1991. Inducted to Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Manning is perhaps Tennessee's most dependable fan, attending every game home and away since the 1951 opener. First hired by Gen. Neyland as publicity director, he worked for the University of Tennessee for 50 years before retiring in 1999. He teamed with Haywood Harris to write "Six Seasons Remembered: The National Championship Years of Tennessee Football"
"With the incredible tradition of sports writers and sports information people in the state of Tennessee, it's only fitting that the Tennessee Sports Writers Association finally is able to commemorate and acknowledge that tradition and the high standards that have been set," said Tennessee Sports Writers Association president Teresa Walker.
Those who will be inducted into the TSWA Hall of Fame at the July 2006 convention will be:
Edgar Allen, The Nashville Banner and TSSAA
Russ Bebb, The Knoxville Journal
John Bibb, The Tennessean
Ben Byrd, The Knoxville Journal
Al Dunning, The Commercial Appeal
Will Grimsley, Associated Press, The Evening Tennessean
Haywood Harris, University of Tennessee
Elmore (Scoop) Hudgens, Vanderbilt University, Southeastern Conference
Buck Johnson, The Chattanooga Times
Gary Lundy, The Knoxville Journal, The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Gus Manning, University of Tennessee
Grantland Rice, The Tennessean, Murfreesboro native
Fred Russell, The Nashville Banner
Tom Siler, The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Gene (Pappy) Thompson, Bristol Herald Courier
Marvin West, The Knoxville News-Sentinel.
"The people included in this inaugural Hall of Fame class embody the best the state of Tennessee has brought to sports over the decades," said Walker, "and I believe the members of the Tennessee Sports Writers Association share in the great pride that we are able to honor them in this way."
The TSWA plans to commemorate its Hall of Fame on plaques to be installed in press boxes around the state. Vanderbilt University, Middle Tennessee State University of Tennessee and the NFL's Tennessee Titans were among the first groups to join in the program.
Inductees will be honored in July as part of the organization's annual college awards banquet.
Bios of other Tennessee Sports Writers Association Inductees
Edgar Allen, The Nashville Banner and TSSAA
Inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1989. The Nashville native was the longtime Nashville Banner prep sports editor and sports editor. He worked with the TSSAA for years after he retired from the Banner, helping the association publicize its athletes. He received the Bert McGrane Award - The Football Writers Association of America Hall of Fame - in 1994.
Russ Bebb, The Knoxville Journal
The Sweetwater native chose the newspaper business over college, and he was a news reporter, sportswriter, columnist, assistant sports editor and executive sports editor at the Knoxville Journal from 1953 until it closed in 1992. He died at 74 after a brief illness in December 2004. He wrote two books on Tennessee football and was a statistician for 45 years for the Vol Radio Network.
John Bibb, The Tennessean
A member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and a two-time president of the Golf Writers Association of America, he covered 36 straight Masters tournaments and worked for The Tennessean from 1942 until his retirement in 1993, the last 23 as sports editor. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for a series of columns calling for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. He received the College Sports Information Directors of America's Jake Ward Award in 1988. The Nashville native went to Vanderbilt University.
Ben Byrd, The Knoxville Journal
A five-time Tennessee Sportswriter of the year in 1975, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1983 with the Knoxville Journal. He covered 40 Masters, the 1976 and 1984 Olympic games, eight or nine U.S. Open golf tournaments, a World Series and at least 20 bowl games and 15 SEC basketball tournaments. He was inducted into the Tennessee State Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. He wrote three books including "You Can Go Home Again" with Johnny Majors. He started the first UT basketball TV show in 1960 with coach John Sines and continued through the Ray Mears era with John Ward. He helped establish UT journalism school's Lindsey Nelson Scholarship Award in honor of his old friend. The Knoxville native joined the Journal staff in May 1947 and was named sports editor in 1969. His column "Byrd's-Eye View" was the regular column from the late 60s until the last publication on Jan. 1, 1992.
Al Dunning, The Commercial Appeal
Al Dunning was sports editor of The Commercial Appeal for 18 years. He was remembered for his versatility and knack of getting the job done with a minimum of fuss. He was 16 when hired by The Evansville (Ind.) Press as a part-time writer. He graduated from the University of Evansville and served in the U.S. Army as a public information officer between 1958 and 1961. He returned to The Evansville Press and was named sports editor in 1964. He was named The Commercial Appeal's sports editor in September 1977.
Will Grimsley, Associated Press, Evening Tennessean
Born in Monterey, Tenn., he covered 15 Olympics, 35 World Series and 25 Kentucky Derbies for The Associated Press during four decades as a reporter, columnist and special correspondent. He started his career at the Evening Tennessean and became sports editor and columnist in 1935 for the paper. The AP in Memphis hired him in 1943. In 1969, he was named a special correspondent, one of just a handful of AP writers and the only one in sports to carry that title. He covered the "Thrilla in Manila" and the 1972 terrorist attack in Munich. He wrote four books and was a four-time Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He served as the NSSA president in 1985 and 1986 and was inducted into the NSSA Hall of Fame in 1987. He was presented the Red Smith Award by APSE in 1987.
Elmore (Scoop) Hudgens, Vanderbilt University, Southeastern Conference
The first sports information director at both Vanderbilt and for the Southeastern Conference, the Chattanooga native held the Vanderbilt job from 1949 until 1964 when he became the SEC's first sports information director, holding that position until his retirement in 1983. He organized the SEC Skywriters Tour, a preseason tour of the conference's football schools for media members. He also was credited with starting live action play-by-play accounts of football and basketball games in the press box. He was a past president of the College Sports Information Directors of America. He was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame in 1976 and received the CoSIDA Arch Ward Award in 1983.
Buck Johnson, The Chattanooga Times
He taught and coached football, baseball and girls basketball on the junior high level for 30 years at Soddy-Daisy. He took a part-time job in the sports department at The Chattanooga Times in 1952, a job George Short told him he would let him know when it ended. He retired from teaching in 1979 and accepted the job of sports editor and columnist for The Chattanooga Times until he retired in 1996. He was named Sports Writer of the Year seven times by national softball group, won national award for series on water pollution in Chattanooga, was awarded best column of year in 1995 from the Golf Writers Association of America for his Masters coverage, won AAU's first national "media man of the year." In 1991, he took job as chief press officer for the International Softball Federation in 1991 and worked at the Olympics in Atlanta, Sidney and Athens and is on target to work in Beijing in 2008. He also is a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, the National Softball Hall of Fame and the Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame.
Gary Lundy, Knoxville Journal and The Knoxville News-Sentinel
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Lundy was a sports journalist for 27 years who worked at the Knoxville Journal until it folded in 1992, and then moved to the News Sentinel. A four-time Tennessee Sports Writer of the Year by the TSWA and twice by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He also received honors from the Associated Press Sports Editors. He died at age 49 in November 2004. In 2005 he was inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame.
Grantland Rice, Murfreesboro native
Considered the dean of American sports writers, he was born in Murfreesboro in 1880 and died in 1954. He worked with the Atlanta Journal and Cleveland News before going to the Nashville Tennessean. He is the writer who dubbed the Notre Dame backfield of the late 1920s the "Four Horsemen." His writing was inspirational and heroic and one of the reasons why the 1920s were known as the Golden Age of Sports. His columns were nationally syndicated in 1930. He was the charter inductee into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 1962. He is also a member of the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame.
Fred Russell, Nashville Banner
He spent more than 50 years at the Nashville Banner and once helped Bear Bryant get an assistant's job. He covered every Olympics between 1960 and 1980, including Tennessee native Wilma Rudolph's triple gold medal performance at the 1960 Rome Games. Known for his fairness, a practicing attorney who started as a cub reporter in 1929 he interviewed Muhammad Ali, Ty Cobb, Jack Dempsey, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and many others. He retired in 1980. He was elected to the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame in 1988 and given the Red Smith Award by The Associated Press Sports Editors in 1984. He received the Bert McGrane Award - The Football Writers of America Hall of Fame - in 1981. The U.S. Olympic Committee gave him its Distinguished Journalism Award in 1976. He received the College Sports Information Directors of America's Jake Ward Award in 1966.
Tom Siler, Knoxville News-Sentinel
Tom Siler was born in Jellico, Tenn., in 1909 and died Sept. 18, 1988. He graduated from the University of Tennessee. He joined the Knoxville News Sentinel in 1931, and then left to work for The Associated Press with three years in Nashville and three more in Chicago. He joined the Chicago Sun sports staff in 1941 but worked in Europe as a war correspondent 1942-1945. He returned to the News Sentinel as a columnist in 1948 and was sports editor from 1957-1980, taking over after the death of Bob Wilson. He wrote three books on UT football, sports magazines. He covered major bowl games, World Series, Super Bowls, Olympics from 1960 until 1972, baseball spring-training camps, preseason tour of SEC football teams long before SEC media traveled as a group, major boxing championship bouts, PGA golf (Masters, U.S. Open, PGA), and Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown races); served as president of Football Writers Association of America (College football), and twice served as president of UT Alumni Association. He received the Bert McGrane Award - The Football Writers Association Hall of Fame award - in 1979. He was inducted into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame. He also was the first sportswriter in Knoxville to host a radio talk show. His most poignant experience was interviewing Lou Gehrig, New York Yankees first baseman, between trains in Chicago with Gehrig was returning from Mayo Clinic where he learned of his fatal disease.
Gene "Pappy" Thompson, Herald Courier
His career spanned more than 50 years at the Bristol Herald Courier before he retired in 1979. He started in 1937 as police reporter and sports writer and also served as sports editor and executive sports editor. He is a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and Virginia Wall of Fame. He also chaired a committee that brought Little League baseball back to Bristol and helped direct the city's recreation programs, including baseball and softball leagues.
Marvin West, Knoxville News-Sentinel
Marvin West started his career at the Orange and White, then the campus paper at the University of Tennessee. He was paid $25 per quarter as sports editor before going onto The Knoxville News-Sentinel in 1955, the start of a 42-year career with Scripps Howard. He went from sportswriter handling bowling scores to sports editor, then managing editor. He was twice sportswriter of the year in Tennessee, was president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and several times a director of the Football Writers Association of America. He has been inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. He covered the Volunteers in all sports and also wrote for magazines and The Sporting News and had a statewide radio show, appropriately named "Marvin West Talks Tennessee." He went to Washington in 1985 as national sports editor for Scripps Howard News Service. He wrote stories and columns and coordinated coverage of six Olympics and an assortment of Super Bowls, Final Fours, World Series and Masters golf tournaments. West was again promoted from sports editor to managing editor before he retired.
