This year marks the 15th anniversary of Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Jim Murray's passing on Aug 16, 1998. Many people grew up reading Jim Murray’s work in Sports Illustrated, in the Los Angeles Times or in one of his syndicated newspapers around the country. His style, and his quips – not the least of which were leveled at the dangers inherent in auto racing and the Indy 500 - were legendary and he was a pioneer in the evolution of sports writing. Not a few automotive journalists were inspired in their own careers by Jim Murray. In 1999, the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, was established to perpetuate Jim's legacy through a national essay competition at journalism schools across the country as part of a scholarship effort to support young people in sports journalism.
Students are asked to respond to the following prompt: "Write a column-style personality profile that paints a word portrait of a coach, player, referee, fan or any other interesting personality related to sports in your community. Use observation and interviews with your subject and those who know him or her to create a compelling character for your readers."
Since 2000, the JMMF has awarded 83 individual $5,000 journalism scholarships to students who have gone on to achieve success in their chosen fields with the New York Times, the New York Post, ESPN, CNN, YahooSports.com, the Star-Ledger, Associated Press, Dayton Daily News, Palm Beach Post, North Shore Sun, The Covington (Ga) News, The Oregonian, Salt Lake Tribune, Antelope Valley Press, and Native News, to name a few. Some are teaching English and/or journalism at high school and/or college level, several have subsequently earned a law degree, and a few are working in public relations, marketing and/or communications-related fields, including social media.
As the program expands, donation incentives amongst the journalism and sports communities have been leveled in the form of individual scholarships commemorating a specific sports genre, which is where it touches upon the auto enthusiast community. From foundation president Bill McCoy, “If we can raise the full $5,000 scholarship amount from the auto-racing community, then we will name one of the scholarships in the name of Auto-Racing. Each professional sport is encouraged to participate in the "competition" to raise a scholarship for their sport. The leader at this point is auto racing with $1500.00 in donations. The scholarship is not specifically for a sportswriter in auto-racing. Our goal is to raise $25,000 to award 5 $5,000 scholarships this August.”
It’s a great goal, with an added bonus for auto-racing fans, and it has the backing and support of such automotive super-stars as Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney and Rockingham Dragway. who have pledged their support to the foundation to recognize auto racing journalism.
If you’d like to donate towards the JMMF/Auto-Racing Scholarship which will be awarded to one of our essay competition winners in August, contact the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, PO Box 60753, Pasadena, CA 91116 or [email protected].
Al Michaels, James Garner, Mario Andretti, Danny Sullivan, Jim Murry, Carroll Shelby, & Dan Gurney at the Beverly Hilton in 1996.