ELECTED MEMBERS
   
Last NameSportCountryYear Inducted
MURRAY OLDERMAN

Sport: Media
Inducted: 1997
Country: United States
Born: March 27, 1922 in New York, New York

Sports columnist and cartoonist Murray Olderman’s work appeared in 750 daily newspapers for the greater part of 35 years. His columns and cartoons were distributed by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association (NEA), a Scripps- Howard syndicate. Olderman is also the author of eleven books and illustrator
of nine others. He is the founder of the Jim Thorpe Trophy—for the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player, and the founder of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy—for the National Basketball Association’s MVP. His football murals hang at the Football
Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Olderman is holder of a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, bachelor’s degree in Science and Humanities from Stanford University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He
joined the NEA in 1952, became its sports editor in 1964, its executive editor in 1968, a contributing editor in 1971, and he loosely retired in 1987. Among the numerous publications he
has also contributed to as a writer or cartoonist are Sports Illustrated, Saturday Evening Post, The Sporting News,
Tennis, World Tennis, Golf Digest, Inside Sports
, and Skiing Magazine.

In 1974, and again in 1979, Olderman was named Sports Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society. He received the Pro Football Writers Association’s Dick McGann Award in 1979, as outstanding professional football writer. In 1991, the (college)
Football Writers Association of America honored him with their Mc-
Grane Award. And, he has served as president of the Football Writers Association of America.

Among the books Olderman either authored or co-authored are The 20th Century Encyclopedia of Baseball, Tennis Clinic, The Warrior Way, Just Win, Baby, Starr, and the three-book Prentice-Hall
series, The Pro Quarterback, The Running Backs, and The Defenders.

A recipient of many professional
writing and cartooning honors in addition
to those already mentioned, Olderman
was inducted into the National
Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1993.
 
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