1987 BBWAA Career Excellence Award Winner Jim Murray

Jim Murray was sometimes caustic in print, but always gentle in public.

He became one of the country's most widely-read sports columnists by having fun with events and with people.

Imagination, hyperbole, literacy, humor, similes and a deft needle were always his staples.

He entertained and informed several times a week with 800-900 carefully crafted words.

Following tours of duty with Sports Illustrated, Time magazine, the Los Angeles Examiner, the New Haven Register and the Hartford Times, Murray became a Los Angeles Times sports columnist for well over 30 years.

He was named "America's Best Sportswriter" by the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters 14 times and was installed in the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1977.

Murray was the recipient of the AP Sports Editors Association Award for best column writing in 1984, the Red Smith Award for extended meritorious labor in sports writing in 1982, the Headliner Award in 1965 and 1977, and an Alumni Medal from his alma mater, Trinity College, in 1972.

In 1982, he became the first sportswriter to win the coveted Victor Award, and in 1990 he won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

Murray passed away on Aug. 16, 1998.