Nat Fleischer Award

The Nat Fleischer Award is an award conferred annually by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) for Excellence in Boxing Journalism. The award is named after Nat Fleischer, founder of The Ring Magazine.

Nat Fleischer Award

Sport	Boxing
Awarded for	"Excellence in Boxing Journalism"
Location	U.S.
Presented by	Boxing Writers Association of America
History
First award	1972
First winner	Barney Nagler
Most recent	Tom Gerbasi

History

Established in 1972, the award honors Nat Fleischer, who helped found the Boxing Writers Association of America and served as its president. Voting for the Nat Fleischer Award is restricted to past honorees, while BWAA members vote on all other awards.^[1][2] The BWAA presents the award each year at its annual honors dinner.

The first person to receive the award was American sportswriter Barney Nagler.^[3] The first non-American recipient of the award was Hugh McIlvanney in 1986.^[4]

The late Red Smith, known for influencing a generation of writers, is among its most distinguished honorees.^[4]

Past recipients

Source:^[3]

• 1972 – Barney Nagler
• 1973 – Dave Anderson
• 1974 – Jack Hand, Murray Rose
• 1975 – Red Smith
• 1976 – Jesse Abramson
• 1977 – Bob Waters
• 1978 – Jerry Izenberg
• 1979 – Ed Schuyler
• 1980 – Tom Cushman
• 1981 – Michael Katz
• 1982 – Pat Putnam
• 1983 – Vic Ziegel
• 1984 – John Schulian
• 1985 – George Kimball
• 1986 – Hugh McIlvaney
• 1987 – Elmer Smith
• 1988 – Tom Archdeacon
• 1989 – Jim Murray
• 1990 – Bert Sugar
• 1991 – Stan Hochman
• 1992 – Ken Jones
• 1993 – Ron Borges
• 1994 – Wallace Matthews
• 1995 – Robert Seltzer
• 1996 – Royce Feour
• 1997 – Alan Goldstein
• 1998 – Bernard Fernandez
• 1999 – Tim Dahlberg
• 2000 – Jay Searcy
• 2001 – Richard Hoffer
• 2002 – Steve Springer
• 2004 – Thomas Hauser
• 2005 – Tim Smith
• 2006 – Kevin Iole
• 2007 – Steve Sneddon
• 2008 – Norm Frauenheim
• 2009 – None
• 2010 – Steve Farhood
• 2011 – Colin Hart
• 2012 – Dave Kindred
• 2013 – Dan Rafael
• 2014 – Mark Whicker
• 2015 – William Gildea
• 2016 – Bill Dwyre
• 2017 – Michael Rosenthal
• 2018 – Thom Loverro
• 2019 – Graham Houston
• 2020 – Joe Maxse
• 2021 – Mark Kriegel
• 2022 – Lance Pugmire
• 2023 – Nigel Collins
• 2024 – Tom Gerbasi

See also

• Boxing Writers Association of America