March 29, 2018
By Robert Gagliardi, APSE Third Vice President
Luke Johnson of The Advocate and Sam McKewon of the Omaha World-Herald shared first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2017 contest in breaking news in the 75,000-175,000 circulation category.
Johnson’s story was about how two people associated with the LSU baseball team saved the life of a Florida fan at the College World Series. McKewon’s winning entry was about how some big names around University of Nebraska football helped lure Scott Frost tobecome the Cornhuskers’ new coach.
Johnson and McKewon will be presented first-place plaques at the 2018 APSE banquet. The banquet and awards dinner concludes the APSE Summer Conference June 17-20 at the Marriott Hotel Nashville/Vanderbilt University. The second- through 10th-place winners will receive frameable certificates.
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
There was a third-place tie between Stephen J. Nesbitt and Steph Chambers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. Nesbitt and Chambers wrote about how a MLB umpire saved a woman from the edge of a bridge in Pittsburgh. Heyman’s entry was about the Florida Marlins seeking investors for a project.
Contest chair John Bednarowski and fellow APSE officers Jeff Rosen, Todd Adams and Robert Gagliardi numbered each entry. Preliminary judges selected a top 10, and from there another group of judges ranked the finalists in order from 1 to 10 separately on a secret ballot. Entries were given 10 points for a first-place vote, nine for second, etc. The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
Breaking news is an article of sports news (trades, hirings, firings, franchise shifts, etc) that occurred in the most recent news cycle.
The top 10 is listed below with links to writers’ Twitter pages, APSE member websites and the winning entries.
1t. Luke Johnson, The Advocate, 40 points, 1 first-place vote
Father of Jared Poché, father of LSU strength coach save Florida fan’s life at College World Series
1t. Sam McKewon, Omaha World-Herald, 40 points, 1 first-place vote
How Bill Moos, Tom Osborne and Matt Davison drew Scott Frost to Lincoln
3t. Stephen J. Nesbitt and Steph Chambers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 38 points, 1 first-place vote
MLB umpire saves woman from edge of Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh
3t. Jon Heyman, FanRag Sports, 38 points, 1 first-place vote
Marlins seeking investors with Project Citrus
- Michael Phillips and Paul Woody, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 35 points, 1 first-place vote
‘Inappropriate’ social media post disqualifies Atlee softball team from championship game
6t. Brett Dawson and Erik Horne, The Oklahoman, 32 points
Enes Kanter detained in Romania, blames political views
6t. Tod Leonard, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 32 points, 1 first-place vote
Wiggins: WNBA’s ‘harmful’ culture of bullying, jealousy
- Craig Harris, The Arizona Republic, 30 points
Arizona Coyotes accused of threatening employees, union busting in NLRB complaints
- Dan Kane, The News & Observer, 26 points
UNC’s response again challenges NCAA’s jurisdiction in academic scandal
- Mike Organ, The Tennessean, 24 points
Predators anthem singer unhappy about being upstaged by country acts
