Meet the legends who are first inductees into NC-based Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame
Wendell Smith convinced Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager Branch Rickey to take a look at a minor league ballplayer named Jackie Robinson. His character was a big part of the movie “42.”
Claire Smith was Major League Baseball’s first female beat writer.
Michael Wilbon has been big part of print and televised sports journalism for 40 years.
After Saturday, they’ll have a place of honor on the N.C. A&T campus in Greensboro, along with other Black pioneers of sports journalism — as the first class of inductees into the Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame has been a labor of love for Rob Parker, a sports radio host in Los Angeles and a former sports reporter and columnist at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Detroit Free Press and Newsday.
“So many great Black sports reporters, columnists and editors have gone unrecognized,” said Parker, who teamed on the project with former journalist David Squires, now a faculty member at N.C. A&T. “This is the start of giving those journalists some recognition.”
Squires said N.C. A&T, the largest Historically Black University or College in the nation, was among many HBCU’s that had been under consideration as the site for the shrine.
“Rob decided that this was the right place,” Squires said.
Supporting Black sports journalists has been a passion for Parker. Four years ago, he launched MLBbro.com, a website that covers Black and brown baseball players.
“We’ve gone from a staff of 14 to 70,” said Parker, who was voted into the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame two years ago.
The Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame, he said, helps familiarize students with the pioneers in the profession and gives would-be journalists “a chance to rub elbows with the legends.”
“These students need tutors,” he said.
Squires, who worked for the Charlotte Observer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, New York Times and several other publications, said the initial Hall of Fame inductees worked for major publications. But, he said, the search is on for small-town journalists.
“We know there were Black sports journalists who worked for small-town papers and were legendary figures,” he said. “We want to find and honor them.”
Voting was conducted by a task force from the NABJ. Parker said inductees needed 75% or more of the vote.
The first class of inductees:
William C. Rhoden, 74, worked for the African-American Times, Baltimore Sun, Ebony and the New York Times. He also launched Andscape, a Black media platform that tells the stories of Black identity.
Claire Smith, 70, was the first female beat writer in Major League Baseball, covering the New York Yankees for the Hartford Courant from 1984-87. She is an assistant professor at Temple’s Klein School of Media and Communications.
Michael Wilbon, 66, worked for the Washington Post for more than 25 years, before moving to ESPN in 2010. He is known to viewers for his roles with “Sports Reporters” and “Pardon the Interruption,” but as a Post sports writer and sports columnist, he covered MLB, the NBA and the NFL.
Six other pioneering journalists will be honored in memoriam:
Bryan Burwell worked for HBO’s “Inside the NFL” and then became a reporter and columnist with the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Later, he worked in radio in the St. Louis area. Burwell died in 2014 at age 59.
Thom Greer covered the Philadelphia Eagles for the Trenton (NJ) Evening Times in the mid-1960s, then went to the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a suburban writer. He later worked in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, before returning to the Plain Dealer in 1983 as the first Black sports editor of a major U.S. paper. He later became editor and president of the Plain Dealer and died in 2014 at age 69.
Sam Lacy, a Howard University graduate, worked for 60 years with the Baltimore Afro-American and covered the Negro leagues. He wrote his final column just days before his death in 2003 at age 99.
Wendell Smith had a role in Jackie Robinson becoming the first Black player in MLB and was featured in the movie “42.” He covered the Negro leagues for the Pittsburgh Courier and later worked for the Chicago Sun-Times. He died in 1972 at age 58.
Larry Whiteside worked for the Milwaukee Journal and Boston Globe. He also launched the Black List, to help editors find qualified Black sports journalists. Whiteside died in 2007 at age 69.
Ralph Wiley worked for the Oakland Tribune and coined the phrase “Billy Ball,” to describe Billy Martin’s baseball managerial style. He also worked for Sports Illustrated and ESPN and died in 2004 at age 51.
Want to go?
The Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame ceremony will be from 5-8 p.m. Saturday in the Deese Ballroom at N.C. A&T’s Student Center, 1403 John W. Mitchell Drive, Greensboro.
Tickets may be purchased here.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.