Marshall University Athletics
Bogaczyk Earns Morehouse Award
4/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | General
HUNTINGTON - Jack Bogaczyk, who will retire this summer after more than 45 years in the sports media business, has been selected as the recipient of the 2016 Morehouse Award by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
He will be recognized at the 70th annual Victory Awards Dinner on May 15 at the Charleston Civic Center.
The Morehouse Award is named for the late Gene Morehouse, who served as Marshall University Sports Information Director/Broadcaster and was on the airplane that crashed transporting the Thundering Herd football team on Nov. 14, 1970. Morehouse was one of 75 killed in the crash.
The award, given since 1971, is awarded a "distinguished sports journalist with service to the state."
Bogaczyk currently is Columnist for HerdZone.com and Editor of the Herd Insider after serving as sports editor and columnist for the Charleston Daily Mail from 2002-2012. He joined the Marshall Athletics and Kindred Communications staffs in May 2012.
"It's a tremendous honor to receive this award, especially one that is in memory of a man whose work touched so many through his words - spoken and written," Bogaczyk said. "As a communicator, that's what you want to do, and I have tried to do that since I started working at a craft I've loved for so many years.
"It's also a special honor because it comes from my peers. I know how hard sportswriters and broadcasters work, and the time and effort they put in not only to tell a story, but to get it right."
Bogaczyk was named West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year in 2007, 2009 and 2012 by the state members of the National Sportscasters & Sportswriters Association and has been honored several times including by the Associated Press Sports Editors, U.S/ Basketball Writers Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the West Virginia and Virginia Press Associations, Virginia Horse Council and he Virginia Chapter of the U.S. Tennis Association.
The honoree has covered the Atlanta Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series, multiple Daytona 500s, 11 NCAA Final Fours, 28 NCAA basketball tournaments, 31 college bowl games at 15 different bowls, 11 seasons of Washington Redskins football, and the NBA playoffs in addition to local and regional sports.
Prior to working in the state, Bogaczyk served as the first Media Relations Manager with the Roanoke Dazzle of the National Basketball Development League, the NBA's minor league. Before that, he worked 27 years as a sports journalist for The Roanoke Times including a decade as the lead sports columnist. He also worked as a beat reporter (Virginia Tech and minor league pro hockey) and wrote a Broadcast Sports column for 19 years.
He earlier worked for newspapers in Covington, Ky., and Binghamton, N.Y. Bogaczyk and his wife, Carol, live in Barboursville.
