ASWA Newsletter

2007 ASWA Convention News

Award Winners | Photo Gallery

HUNTSVILLE — Christopher Walsh of The Tuscaloosa News received the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing award for the first time at the association’s 36th annual convention Sunday in Huntsville.

Walsh, who was presented two awards, won the Herby Kirby Award for his story on “Four Players From Druid High School Were Killed In The Famous Marshall Plane Crash In 1970, Portrayed In The Movie, We Are Marshall.” The story also won first place in the Best Football Feature Without A Deadline category. Walsh won both awards received by The Tuscaloosa News as it was also selected as the Best Football Feature.

The Tuscaloosa News won its first Herby Kirby Award, which is given in memory of longtime Birmingham Post-Herald sports writer Herby Kirby, who died in the press box after covering Notre Dame’s 24-23 national football championship win over Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl.

The Birmingham News won the most awards with eight while The Mobile Press-Register had four first-place finishes and The Huntsville Times and The Tuscaloosa News had two each. The Montgomery Advertiser, Florence Times-Daily and The Opelika-Auburn News each had one first-place finish.

For The Birmingham News, Jon Solomon won three first-place awards including the Best Enterprise Story, Best Baseball Feature and Best General Sports Feature; Kevin Scarbinsky and Ray Melick were selected as co-Best Column; Doug Segrest for Best Swimming & Diving Feature; Mike Bolton for Best Outdoors Feature; and The Birmingham News staff for Best Sports Layout and Best Supplement/Special Edition.

Solomon won three categories for the most received individually.

The four first-place awards for The Mobile Press-Register include Thomas Murphy for Best Sports Story, Writing on a Deadline, Professional or College Event; Mike Herndon for Best Sports Story, Writing on a Deadline, Prep or Other Amateur Event; Mark Inabinett for Best Auto Racing Feature; and Mark Heim for Headlines.

The Huntsville Times and The Tuscaloosa News won a pair of categories. For The Huntsville Times, Bruce McLellan won the Best Track and Field/Cross Country Feature and Bill Bryant for Best Tennis Feature.

Mike Szvetitz of The Opelika-Auburn News won Best Basketball Feature, Gregg DeWalt of The Florence Times Daily won Best Golf Feature and Josh Moon of The Montgomery Advertiser won Best Investigative Story.