NEW ORLEANS (FWAA) Claude Felton, longtime sports information director at the University of Georgia, has been named the 2008 recipient of the Football Writers Association of America's Bert McGrane Award, it was announced during the FWAA annual awards breakfast.
The McGrane Award, symbolic of the association's Hall of Fame, is presented to an FWAA member who has performed great service to the organization and/or the writing profession. It is named after McGrane, a Des Moines, Iowa, writer who was the executive secretary of the FWAA from the early 1940s until 1973.
"Claude Felton for years has run one of the best press operations in college football and has been of great help to other FWAA members and the media in general," said Mike Griffith, FWAA president. "He has always been responsive to writers' needs and has gone out of his way to help. He is very deserving of this honor."
During his career, Felton has served as media coordinator for 17 NCAA national championship events and was the host sports information director for the 1977 NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in Atlanta. He served on the press liaison staff for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and was the press venue chief for the soccer venue at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.
Felton also served as chairman of the Ethics Committee of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) from 1985-91 and chairman of the CoSIDA Olympic Liaison Committee (1992-95). He was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2001 and is a recipient of the organization's Arch Ward Award in 2004. Felton, who was inducted into the Savannah (Ga.) Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005, is currently a member of the NCAA men's basketball Final Four media coordination committee.
A native of Savannah, Ga., Felton has received two degrees from the University of Georgia. He is married to the former Cathy Turner of Athens, Ga., and they have three children: Robyn, a 2000 graduate of Samford University; Christopher, a 2001 graduate of Georgia; and Patrick, a sophomore at Georgia.
Felton will be honored this summer during the National Football Foundation's Hall of Fame induction weekend in South Bend, Ind., and his name will be placed in the College Football Hall of Fame's rotunda.
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Bert McGrane Award