DALLAS (NCBWA) – Al Chase, who has covered college
baseball for 30 years, is the 35th recipient of the Wilbur Snypp
Award, presented annually by the National Collegiate Baseball
Writers Association for outstanding contributions to college
baseball.
"I am totally surprised at receiving this award," Chase said.
"It is an honor to be included in the list of distinguished recipients.
My thanks to all NCBWA members. It was a pleasure to cover so many
great players and outstanding coaches in both dugouts at the University
of Hawaii's Les Murakami Stadium all those years."
"I also am proud to have established the criteria for the annual
active and retired baseball coaches career lists," he added. "Compiling
that list for 10 years in the '80's before handing the task over
to the NCAA would not have been possible without the tremendous
cooperation of the Division I sports information directors."
"Al Chase has been one of the top college baseball writers, and,
for that matter, one of the top sports writers in the country for
39 years," said NCBWA executive director Bo Carter. "He has been
a very active participant in NCBWA, college baseball polls and many
other areas, and this is a long-overdue and well-deserved honor.
He is one of the classiest people in the sports media industry."
Chase introduced the first NCBWA poll in the 1970s and early
1980s. He covered the 1980 NCAA College World Series, many conference
tournaments and mainland series along with covering college baseball
in Hawaii for 30 years. He is a great friend of the NCBWA and retired
from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2007 after being a sports writer
for 39 years.
Al covered Hawaii's 1980 trip to the NCAA College World Series
where the Rainbow Warriors finished second to Arizona and World
Series MVP Terry Francona, future manager of the Red Sox. He also
covered Hawaii College Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Derek Tatsuno
during his 20-win season in 1979 when he became the first Division
I pitcher to reach that mark. Al wrote one of the most well-read
columns in Hawaii and also was the beat writer for the University
of Hawaii’s women’s soccer and women’s basketball teams. He has
covered over 900 Hawaii home baseball games since 1968.
The Mansfield, Mass., native is a graduate of the University
of Hawaii in 1966, and lives in Hawaii with his wife, Lee.
Chase joins an illustrious group of College Sports Information
Directors of America Hall of Famers, noted national journalists
and others in receiving the award. The plaque memorializes longtime
Ohio State sports information director and NCBWA founder the late
Wilbur (Bill) Snypp. Snypp was a noted contributor to the writers'
organization, which was initiated in 1962 (and celebrating its 48th
year in 2009), as well as an officer in the group. The NCBWA/Wilbur
Snypp Award yearly honors a professional for contributions to the
sport of collegiate baseball. Voting is done by a panel of previous
winners, who include past NCAA World Series officials, SIDs, award-winning
media members, and college athletics administrators.
ALL-TIME WILBUR SNYPP AWARD
WINNERS |
1975 Wilbur
Snypp, Ohio State 1976 Bill Esposito, St. John's 1977 Phil Langan,
Cornell 1978 John Geis, Southern Conference 1979 Hank Schomber, Georgia
Southern 1980 Bob Culp, Western Michigan 1981 Lou Pavlovich Sr., Collegiate
Baseball 1982 Tom Price, South Carolina 1983 Bob Bradley, Clemson
1984 Robert Williams, Omaha World-Herald 1985 Jerry Miles, NCAA 1986
Larry Keefe, Seton Hall 1987 Tom Rowen, San Jose Mercury-News 1988
Fred Gerardi, KESY Radio, Omaha 1989 Jim Wright, NCAA 1990 Steve Weller,
SIU-Edwardsville 1991 Bill Little, Texas 1992 Kirk Bohls,
Austin American-Statesman 1993 Bo Carter, Southwest Conference 1994 Lou Pavlovich
Jr., Collegiate Baseball 1995 Steve Pivovar, Omaha World-Herald 1996
Gary Johnson, NCAA |
1997 Dave Wohlhueter, Cornell 1998 Allen Simpson,
Baseball America 1999 Alan Cannon, Texas A&M 2000 Jim
Callis, Baseball America 2001
Dick Case, USA Baseball 2002
Russ Anderson, Conference USA
2003 John Manuel, Baseball America
2004 Dana Heiss Grodin, USA Today
Sports Weekly 2005 Dennis
Poppe, NCAA 2006 Mike Montoro,
Southern Miss 2007 Barry
Allen, Alabama 2008 Mike
Patrick, ESPN 2009 Al Chase,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin 2010
Lou Spry, NCAA 2011 Jeremy
Mills, ESPN/D1Baseball.com
2012 Eric Olson, Omaha World Herald
2013 J.D. Hamilton, NCAA
2014 John Sullivan, Rice
2015 David Feaster, Dick Howser Trophy
2016 Ralph Zobell, BYU
2017 Aaron Fitt, D1Baseball.com |
|