Thomas Hauser Carries On the Legacy of TSS in the Bernie Awards

For the past twenty-one years, the Boxing Writers Association of America has honored outstanding writing with the presentation of what came to be called the Bernie Awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president Bernard Fernandez. The Sweet Science has fared well in this competition and this year, thanks to Thomas Hauser, was no exception.

The venerable Hauser, who was ushered into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the same year as fellow author and frequent TSS contributor Fernandez (class of 2019), was recognized in four of the six categories for stories that appeared on this web site in 2022. He won a first-place award in the category of Investigative Reporting, a second-place award in the category Boxing Feature Under 1,500 Words, and honorable mentions in the categories of Boxing Column and Boxing News Story.

First-Place — Investigating Reporting:

“An Open Letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul Regarding the New York State Athletic Commission” was published here on Jan. 22. You can check it out HERE.

Note: Thomas Hauser has owned this category. This is his ninth first-place finish for investigative reporting.

Second-Place — Boxing Feature Under 1,500 Words:

“The Greatest Show on Earth Comes to Warren, Ohio,” which ran on Jan. 31, was about Don King’s show at a small venue in Ohio headlined by a farcical “world heavyweight title fight” between Trevor Bryan and Louisiana club fighter Jonathan Guidry. It was quite a comedown for the brillo-haired promoter who in his heyday “bestrode the boxing world like a Colossus.” You can check out this fun read HERE.

Note: Hauser shared second-place honors in this category with Hector Franco (NY Fights), Diego Morilla (RingTV.com) and Joseph Santoliquito (PBC).

Honorable mentions: “Dmitry Bivol” Should Not Be allowed to Fight Canelo Alvarez” (March 12) and “Remembering Bill Russell (1934-2022” (Aug. 3).

TSS writer Rick Assad also received an honorable mention for his profile of retired sportswriter and author Harvey Araton. The story, which ran on May 24, was titled “Harvey Araton Reflects on the Odd Coupling of Ali-Liston II and Lewiston. Maine.” You can find it HERE.

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated copped two first place awards, winning in the category Boxing News Story and sharing first-place with Don Stradley in the Boxing Column category. Other first-place finishers were Michael Rothstein (ESPN) for Boxing Event Coverage, Matt Aguilar (Ringside Seat) for Feature Over 1,500 Words, and the multi-decorated freelancer Springs Toledo (Under 1,500 Words) for a story about an after-school boxing program for at-risk kids that ran in Plough’s Quarterly, a Christian-oriented literary magazine whose main office is in Walden, New York.

Submissions were judged by a six-member panel that included retired Cleveland Plain-Dealer sportswriter Joe Maxse and veteran New York scribe Wallace Matthews, both former recipients of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism.

The award winners will be honored at the annual BWAA awards dinner on Thursday, June 8, at the Edison Rooftop in Times Square. We here at The Sweet Science congratulate all the writers whose work was acknowledged.

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