In 2026, we'll introduce two new Jenkins Medal awards. For the inaugural Best Student Sportswriting medal, I'm delighted to celebrate these outstanding finalists!

The stories cited as Jenkins Medal Best Sportswriting finalists are powerful, hilarious and enlightening. All are reported and written by tremendously talented professionals. Profiles, features and deep dives. See all the nominated work at jenkinsmedal.com.

See the 2026 nominees for the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. In addition to Best Sportswriting, we have created new awards for Student Sportwriting and Best Sports Book. www.jenkinsmedal.com Mark your calendars for the awards dinner: September 17 in Austin.

Congratulations Raymond Reyes! #CSCMseniorspotlight

Congratulations Giorgy Ruiz! #CSCMseniorspotlight

Congratulations Grabiel Silva! #CSCMseniorspotlight

Congratulations Bria Latzsch! #CSCMseniorspotlight

Congratulations Ale Burkle! (a.k.a. Alejandra Merodio Burkle) #CSCMseniorspotlight

Join us this afternoon. (With refreshments!)

Here's the video from the 2026 McGarr Symposium on Sports and Society, featuring Chicago Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts. youtu.be/rHw79rjDYsA H/T Cappy McGarr

It was great fun chatting with Tom Ricketts last week. I did my best not to let my @cubsbot.bsky.social fandom get in the way!

Fun fact: The Cubs are the oldest active MLB team still playing in the same city in which they started. The first official use of the “Cubs” moniker came in 1907, the same year that the franchise won the first of back-to-back World Series. Join us tomorrow for Tom Ricketts!

Join us tomorrow for the 2026 Frank Deford Lecture in Sports Journalism, featuring ESPN Senior Writer Seth Wickersham (@sethwickersham.bsky.social). DMC 2.106 at 4pm. Free and open to the public. More info at defordlecture.org.

NEW EVENT: We're delighted to announce that Seth Wickersham will deliver the Frank Deford Lecture in Sports Journalism on March 25. Wickersham has been at ESPN for over two decades. His primary focus is long form enterprise and investigative work on the NFL. Join us on campus!

NEW EVENT: We're honored to welcome Tom Ricketts, Executive Chairman of the Chicago Cubs, for the McGarr Symposium on Sports and Society. After leading his family's 2009 bid for the team, Ricketts has overseen unprecedented on-the-field success and the $1B renovation of legendary Wrigley Field.

BIG NEWS: CSCM is launching a Jenkins Medal award for Best (Sports) Book. Entries open now through 3/27. Any book, fiction or non-fiction, published in 2025 is eligible for consideration. More information and entry form available at www.jenkinsmedal.com.

BIG NEWS: CSCM is launching a Jenkins Medal award for Student Sportswriting. Entries open now through 3/16. Any published piece of sportswriting: game stories, long features, blog posts. Work must have been published in 2025. The author must have been a student at publication.

S/O to our amazing team who helped produce the fifth annual Politics in Sports Media report. We had 22 contributors, including faculty members, graduate students and undergraduates from the Moody College of Communication and across UT-Austin produce the document. Also, Texas Student Media!

El Conjeo Malo at the Fifty Yard Line (written before Bab Bunny's recent Super Bowl performance) takes stock of the artist's impact as a Spanish-language performer. Language-related politics are central to understanding the Latinx histories in the USA. By Paulina A. Serrano

What's the Risk? Speculating on the Sports Media Industrial Complex looks at the comparative risks between ownership, corporate and labor interests in a time of virtually unbridled wagering. In this environment, players become primary targets for bad actors. By Kathryn G. Hartzell

"Public Diplomacy and the NBA's Reconciliation with China" explores the unique cultural power pro-basketball has in a geopolitical relationship that can be contentious. League and corporate financial interests are at stake as well. By Jinglin Yuan and @burnto-butterwo.bsky.social.

Given the Winter Olympics and renewed interest in Eileen Gu, just a reminder that she is a political symbol, whether or not she wants to be: journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

"A Tale of Two Cities at the US Open" takes stock of Donald Trump's attendance at the 2025 US Open. The tennis tournament has historically emphasized progressive sensibilities. The President's visit provided a sharp cultural contrast. By Dr. Kathleen McElroy

Here's the video from yesterday's panel discussion with Dr. Amira Rose Davis (@mirarose88), Dr. Courtney Cox and Imani McGee-Stafford, esq. youtu.be/v7FVlnzrIT0 Double Crossover: Gender, Media and Politics in Global Basketball

"Laboring over Labor in the WNBA" assesses how the league's dramatic successes in attendance, viewership and media rights valuation impacts the player's collective bargaining position in a labor battle that takes on gendered dynamics. By Haley Cox and October Heffner

"Masculine Rhetorical Performances at the 4 Nations Face-off Hockey Tournament" unpacks the unique proxy role hockey matches have played in geopolitical struggle. USA/Canada in 2025 served up another. by Estee Fresco, Olivia S. Gellar and Ryan Evans

What types of topics did ESPN and Yahoo cover more frequently? Overall, both sports media brands featured most of the twelve topics that received the highest rankings in Survey 1 in terms of being “political” in nature. Read the full report! www.politicsinsportsmedia.org

What of audience perceptions of sports media brands when it comes to "political" content? Here are some results from fan surveys on credibility and accuracy for ESPN, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. Full breakout: utexas.app.box.com/s/0gqx6l9kg5...

What is "political" to you? Spoiler alert: it's not the same as everybody else. Here are the results of Fan Perceptions of Sports Media Content. Get the breakout of Audience Perceptions of Political Content in Sports Media here: utexas.app.box.com/s/are3m8i91l....

NEW EVENT: Dr. Courtney Cox, Dr. Amira Rose Davis and pro basketball player Imani McGee-Stafford. The group will discuss Cox’s book which explores the popularity of women’s basketball alongside labor concerns, global politics and a shifting media landscape. 4pm on 2/5 in DMC 2.106.

What do these have in common? * 4 Nations Hockey Tournament * WNBA labor issues * U.S. Open (tennis) * NBA in China * Sports gambling in sports media *Bad Bunny They're all subjects for critical essays in our Politics and Sports Media report. Read it! moody.utexas.edu/centers/spor...

Need some #funfacts from our latest Politics in Sports Media report? 55.42% of respondents do not support athletes sharing political views on social media. In 2025, ESPN and Yahoo Sports both featured the highest number of political topics on their homepages during October.

We're pleased to release our fifth annual “Politics in Sports Media” report. This year's report was prepared with the work of 22 total contributors, including 5 faculty, 15 grad students, and 2 undergraduates. Great quantitative and qualitative insights. moody.utexas.edu/centers/spor...

We're now accepting 2026 Best Sportswriting entries for the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting through Feb. 6. All forms of sportswriting are eligible. Must have been published in 2025. All the information and entry form can be found at www.jenkinsmedal.com.

ICYMI...To NYC And Back: Fall 2025 🚀 Our fall semester newsletter recaps the Jenkins Medal Awards dinner in Manhattan and other CSCM-related activities on the UT-Austin campus. Email [email protected] to get on the distribution list. Read the latest here: preview.mailerlite.io/preview/1320...

#sportsphotography Bruce Bennett began shooting hockey in 1974 at Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum for The Hockey News. Since then, he has covered over 5,600 NHL preseason and regular season games in 58 arenas. He's shot 45 Stanley Cups, 33 All Star games and 6 Olympics.

#sportsphotography Kennedy Weatherby is a photographer for The Daily Texan and was at the UT/A&M football game last week. (ICYMI, the Longhorns won 27-17 and brought the all-time series record to 78–37–5 in UT's favor. Also, UT has an undefeated record vs the Aggies since 2011.)

#sportsphotography Breanna Biorato is the staff photographer for the @washingtonspirit.com, which will be playing in the @nwslsoccer.com Championship this weekend against @gothamfc.bsky.social. Biorato is a recent graduate of @utahtechu.bsky.social, currently living and working in the DC metro area.

#sportsphotography The Texas high school football playoffs are upon us. Carter Pirtle (aka Cartershots) shoots #TXHSFB in the Texas Panhandle and south plains, much of the time for @PressPassSports. Based in Skelleytown, TX, his portfolio runs the gamut of high school sports...

#sportsphotography Brynn Anderson (@brynnbot) has been a photojournalist for the Associated Press since 2012. Based in Bowling Green, KY and an alumna of @wku, Anderson previously worked for the Omaha World-Herald, The Palm Beach Post, the Lincoln Star-Journal and the Lima News.

Here's the video from the Every Day is Sunday conversation with Ken Belson and @burnto-butterwo.bsky.social: youtu.be/Uwlf2Fvcj44

Great to see so many reading Ken Belson's Every Day is Sunday. The Center for Sports Communication & Media is looking forward to hosting Ken next Tuesday for a discussion of the book. Austin folks, come find us on October 28 in DMC 5.208, from 6:00-7:00!

Your 2025 Jenkins Medal awards winners! Wright Thompson (w/Seth Wickersham), Best Sportswriting; Billie Jean King (w/Michael MacCambridge and Sally Jenkins), Sports Legend; Roy Blount Jr. (w/Alexander Wolff), Lifetime Achievement. Program video (and more pics) coming soon!

Here's our appetizer for tonight's awards dinner. In 2016, His Ownself let us follow him around with a camera crew while he covered The Masters. He was irascible, opinionated and funny, as you would expect. Reflective, too. Watch it: youtu.be/t5Pt3W2CjI0?...

Remember when the Pardon the Interruption guys (Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon) sent us this shout out for Dan Jenkins and 2018 Lifetime Achievement medalist Dave Kindred? If you don't you should watch it because it's hilarious and will get you ready for Friday night! youtu.be/iev0fdtMzwI?...

Celebrate the craft of sportswriting and the work of Wright Thompson and around Blount Jr. Attend the 2025 Jenkins Medal Awards Dinner at The Penn Club in New York City on September 26. Also, hear Billie Jean King! Info and tickets available at cvent.utexas.edu/event/c4fe4a7e…..

Join our celebration of sportswriting and the 2025 Jenkins Medal/Best Sportswriting finalists at jenkinsmedal.com. Attend the 2025 Jenkins Medal Awards Dinner at The Penn Club in New York City on September 26. Info and tickets available at cvent.utexas.edu/event/c4fe4a....

www.jenkinsmedal.com Look back at our 2024 Jenkins Medal awards dinner, honoring Sally Jenkins (Best Sportswriting) and Grant Wahl (Lifetime Achievement): youtu.be/-ktJU6Lbxjk?.... Excited to hold this event in NYC next week. Tickets: cvent.utexas.edu/event/c4fe4a...