2013 – Steve Simmons

Steve Simmons calls our Sports Media Canada Annual Achievement Awards luncheon his “favourite day of the year.” In 2013, the veteran sports columnist for Sun Media was even more thrilled considering he was recipient of the 2013 Sports Media Canada George Gross Award for Outstanding Sportswriting. Simmons couldn’t contain his emotions when notified. “Receiving this … [Read More …]

2012 Bruce Arthur

Bruce Arthur’s career as a full-time reporter lasted 17 days before he was laid off. He was working for the National Post, in one of the greatest collecions of sportswriting talent Canada had ever seen – it included Cam Cole, Roy MacGregor, Chris Jones, Dave Feschuk, Tom Maloney, Scott Burnside, Sean Fitz-Gerald, top-notch editors, a … [Read More …]

2011 – Cam Cole

Cam Cole has scored a first by becoming the first two-time recipient (2004 and 2011) of the Sports Media Canada George Gross Award for Outstanding Sportswriting. The fact he’s achieved this should come as no surprise as he has long been one of Canada’s most respected, widely read and informative sports columnists. Cole joined The … [Read More …]

2010 Randy Starkman

It was a muggy August day, one more suited to swimming and picnics than figure skating. But the breaking news, just six months after the Vancouver Winter Games, was volcanic: Korean  figure skater Kim Yu-Na had abruptly fired Canadian coach Brian Orser, the man who’d guided her to a record-shattering Olympic Gold Medal. Toronto Star … [Read More …]

2009 Dave Shoalts & Paul Waldie

Dave Shoalts & Paul Waldie By Tim Wharnsby When David Shoalts first began to write on the dire financial situation the Phoenix Coyotes were engrossed in last fall, the NHL club and commissioner Gary Bettman downplayed the stories emanating from north of the border. But the veteran Globe and Mail hockey columnist, along with the … [Read More …]

2009 Lorne Rubenstein

Lorne Rubenstein is the preeminent figure in the world of Canadian golf journalism and a member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. For over 35 years Rubenstein has been writing and speaking about golf in magazines, newspapers and on television and radio. His experience and passion for the game has made Rubenstein one of … [Read More …]

2008 Bob Elliott

Bob Elliott – 2008 by Bill Lankhof Growing up in Kingston, Toronto Sun baseball writer Bob Elliott must have felt a little like the guy batting behind Reggie Jackson or like someone trudging on stage after Patsy Cline. You know … tough acts to follow. His grandfather, Ed, played for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball … [Read More …]

2007 Michael Farber

MICHAEL FARBER by Red Fisher Montrealer Michael Farber, who is now a senior writer with Sports Illustrated, likes to tell the story about the time he applied to The Montreal Star sports editor for a job in 1979. Six years earlier, he had graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey, Phi Beta Kappa. He joined … [Read More …]