From the very beginning of the romance between microphone and Frank Messer, there was, appropriately enough, a Marine-like precision in the way his sonorous tones came over the airways. The tall North Carolinian, who served the Marine Corps from 1942-1945,…
Marshall Johnson held an extensive newspaper career working for the Lynchburg News and the Manassas Journal. In 1949, he joined the Richmond bureau of the Associated Press, holding a number of positions including sports editor until his retirement career. He…
Charles Karmosky was the long-time sports editor for the Newport News Daily Press. He became sports editor of the Daily Press in 1948 and directed the development of the paper's outstanding sports section until his retirement in 1983. During that…
Described as a sportswriter with legendary concern for objectivity, integrity, sportsmanship, and the feelings of the people about whom he wrote, Bill Leffler left his mark as one of the top writers in the history of Virginia athletics. After 41…
A native of Norfolk, Calvin Jacox served for 25 years as a columnist and later sports editor for the Journal & Guide, at one time the largest African-American publication south of Washington D.C. He is remembered as a crusader in…
Bill Cochran, a lifetime resident of Roanoke, is this year’s media inductee. Cochran began writing about the outdoors while at William Fleming High School. Following his graduation from Lynchburg College in 1960, his byline appeared more than 300 times in…
James "Carroll" Colston is an Iowa native, and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1955. He served in Korea with the U. S. Army, where he began his career as a radio broadcaster with the Armed Forces Radio Service. After…
High school sports in Northern Virginia and Eddie Crane were synonymous over a 30-year period from 1950 until 1980. Crane was a native of Alexandria, Virginia and a graduate of George Washington High School. He actually began covering prep athletics…
Jennings Culley began his lengthy career in Virginia sports journalism as a determined sixteen-year-old in his hometown of Newport News, Virginia on the staff of the Daily Press. The promising young reporter went on to graduate from Randolph-Macon College and…
Bill Deekens, a native of Amelia County, was one of Virginia’s finest sportswriters of the twentieth-century. He attended the University of Virginia where he honed his craft as the editor of the school newspaper. He went on to earn a…