AUSTIN, TEXAS (FWAA) As he approaches his 30th year as a
journalist, Tony Barnhart, the national college sports writer of
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is the 2006 winner of the
Jake Wade Award presented by the College Sports Information
Directors of America.
The Wade Award is presented to a member of the media who has made
significant contributions in the coverage of college athletics, and will
be presented at CoSIDA's national convention in Nashville July 3.
Barnhart, who is in his 23rd year with the Journal-Constitution, also
is a regular contributor to "College Football Today" on CBS and hosts
his own regional television and radio shows.
A native of Union Point, Ga., Barnhart began his newspaper career in
June of 1976 at the Union (S.C.) Daily Times, and in March of
1977, he joined the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, where he
remained until joining the staff of the Journal-Constitution in
1984.
"I know of no journalist who has more professional demeanor and is
respected by more writers, coaches, student-athletes, administrators and
readers than Tony," wrote Georgia's Associate AD for Media Relations
Claude Felton in his nomination of Barnhart.
"But probably the thing that I most admire has been his total
devotion and commitment to the college game. In the midst of
ever-expanding professional sports in most areas of the country over the
past three decades, he has been a standard bearer for college
athletics."
Barnhart is a past president of the Football Writers Association of
America and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and was named the
Georgia Sportswriter of the Year in 1999.
Besides his newspaper, radio and television work, Barnhart has
written several books, including Southern Fried Football: The
History, Passion and Glory of the Great Southern Game, What It
Means To Be A Bulldog, and his latest, Vince Dooley: My 40 Years
at Georgia.