The Neutral Corner

It has been announced that The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation will honor Sugar Ray Leonard with its “Great Ones” award at the Tenth Anniversary “Tribute to Living Legends of Sports and Media” on Thursday, October 30, 2008, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, Calif.

Jim Murray was a legendary sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 1961 to 1998. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1990. Among his many other awards, was also the Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in boxing journalism in 1989. To the best of our knowledge, the only other sports columnists to win the Pulitzer were Dave Anderson and Red Smith, both of the New York Times. Smith and Anderson also won the Fleischer award, which is given out annually by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Leonard is the first fighter to win titles in five weight classes. His bouts with Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler are modern-day classics.

“We are so pleased to honor Sugar Ray Leonard this year with the ‘Great Ones’ award,” said Linda McCoy-Murray, President/Founder of the JMMF. “His reputation in both his sport as well as the community around him most certainly qualifies him as a Great One!”

The goal of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation is to raise funds throughout the year to provide scholarships for second and third year journalism students.

The 2008 JMMF scholarship winners are Kyle Austin, Syracuse University; Kyle Goon, University of Maryland; Ryan Haney, Trinity College-Hartford; Alex Herbach, University of Southern California; Bill Oram, University of Montana; Michael Sanserino, Indiana University; and Mark Viera, Penn State University. The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation was established in 1998 by McCoy-Murray. As of 2008, the JMMF has awarded 63 journalism scholarships totaling $332,500.00.

For more information on the Jim Murray foundation, click here.

-- CASSIDY