AUSTIN, TEXAS (FWAA) – As he approaches his 30th year as a journalist, Tony Barnhart, the national college sports writer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is the 2006 winner of the Jake Wade Award presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

The Wade Award is presented to a member of the media who has made significant contributions in the coverage of college athletics, and will be presented at CoSIDA's national convention in Nashville July 3.

Barnhart, who is in his 23rd year with the Journal-Constitution, also is a regular contributor to "College Football Today" on CBS and hosts his own regional television and radio shows.

A native of Union Point, Ga., Barnhart began his newspaper career in June of 1976 at the Union (S.C.) Daily Times, and in March of 1977, he joined the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, where he remained until joining the staff of the Journal-Constitution in 1984.

"I know of no journalist who has more professional demeanor and is respected by more writers, coaches, student-athletes, administrators and readers than Tony," wrote Georgia's Associate AD for Media Relations Claude Felton in his nomination of Barnhart.

"But probably the thing that I most admire has been his total devotion and commitment to the college game. In the midst of ever-expanding professional sports in most areas of the country over the past three decades, he has been a standard bearer for college athletics."

Barnhart is a past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Football Writers Association of America, and was named the Georgia Sportswriter of the Year in 1999.

Besides his newspaper, radio and television work, Barnhart has written several books, including Southern Fried Football: The History, Passion and Glory of the Great Southern Game, What It Means To Be A Bulldog, and his latest, Vince Dooley: My 40 Years at Georgia.