Tribune-Star staffers honored with seven Indiana SPJ awards
Tribune-Star staff members received seven awards at the Society of Professional Journalists annual Indiana chapter banquet Friday evening at Carmel.
SPJ organizers said a record 1,130 entries were judged by a group of out-of-state journalists in the contest, involving print media, radio, TV, online and multiplatform news outlets.
The Tribune-Star awards went to editor Alicia Morgan, photographer Joe Garza, reporter Sue Loughlin, and columnist and sports editor Mark Bennett. The Tribune-Star honors came in the division for news outlets with circulations under 10,000.
Morgan took a first-place award for best use of graphics and illustrations.
Garza received a third-place award for best multiple picture group and a second-place for best sports photography, capturing images from a Terre Haute Police program with "He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch," and a silhouette from the John McNichols Invitational track and field meet at Indiana State University.
Loughlin got a second-place award in the best non-deadline story or series category for her "Stronger than the Storm" one-year-later retrospective of the deadly 2023 Sullivan tornado.
Bennett took a first-place in column writing for pieces on blues guitarist Dicky James, early 20th-century journalist Stella Stimson's city corruption coverage and Terre Haute native Michael Natt's role in the touring "Hamilton" production. Bennett also received a first in best personality profile for a piece on Terre Haute-born Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars, and a third-place in best sports column writing for pieces on ISU men's basketball, Olympic weightlifter Mary Theisen-Lappen, and former Sycamore football great Vincent Allen's nomination for the College Football Hall of Fame.
Statewide, the Indiana Capital Chronicle's Casey Smith won Journalist of the Year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
37 minutes ago
- USA Today
'Organized chaos': Pacers offense thrives on trust, flow. Is it enough to win NBA title?
'Organized chaos': Pacers offense thrives on trust, flow. Is it enough to win NBA title? Show Caption Hide Caption Pacers' Game 3 adjustments To bounce back in Game 3, the Pacers need better starts, transition offense, and a plan for Shai. The Indiana Pacers are a blur. For them, no possession is too short. They scoop rebounds and fling passes up and down the floor, looking to destabilize opponents, getting open looks before defenses can get set. Sometimes, their up-tempo offense doesn't even need to come off misses; there have been times this postseason when the Pacers have inbounded passes off of made shots, launching outlets ahead to get free layups. Indiana ranked seventh in pace in the regular season, generating 100.76 possessions per 48 minutes. And, for the Pacers to have a shot to upset the Thunder in the NBA Finals, maintaining that destabilizing speed will be paramount because no team has been better on defense than Oklahoma City. 'They're very stubborn in their approach,' Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said Wednesday, June 4. 'They kind of grind you with the way they play. They wear you down. … 'They know their identity and they stick to it, no matter what.' How do the Pacers do it, exactly? For one, they're something of an anomaly in today's NBA, and, to a certain extent, Indiana thrives on trust — practically requires it. Essentially, coach Rick Carlisle, in his fourth season with the Pacers, has evolved Indiana's offense, yielding in-game control to his players. Carlisle allows them to operate within the flow of the game. He has entrusted them to call plays or even go by feel, having loose actions that players can execute outside of set plays. It's a philosophy based on off-ball movement and spacing, one that All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton recently characterized as 'organized chaos' — and he meant that as a high compliment. MORE: Tyrese Haliburton going to film school to decode Thunder's defense OPINION: Pacers cannot keep relying on crazy comebacks. They must start quicker, finish stronger. Center Myles Turner, the longest-tenured Pacer, in his 10th season with the franchise, has seen this evolution first-hand. 'Rick was a coach that used to call a play every single possession,' Turner told reporters Wednesday, June 4. 'Even Rick's first year here, we had a game where he did that: he stopped us and called a play every single possession. 'In the dawn of this new NBA, especially in the playoffs, that stuff doesn't work. It's easy to scout. But when you have random movement on offense, guys that are someone like Tyrese who wants to pass the ball, it makes the game a little bit easier, especially for a guy like myself who thrives with space.' Tyrese Haliburton is the catalyst It all starts with Haliburton. He's a pass-first point guard, and the Pacers take their cue from him. His default is to get out into the open floor, pushing the pace. He's Indiana's motor, and his energy rubs off on others. But even when Indiana operates in the half-court, it tends to operate with speed — thanks to Haliburton. Typically, he will begin sets with the ball in his hands, while other players rotate and work off each other. Sometimes, Haliburton will feign drives and get into the paint before dishing it to open players. Other times, he'll simply look for teammates in open spaces. But what makes the Pacers excel is a selflessness — embodied most by Haliburton, almost to a fault. Haliburton leads all players in the playoffs with 9.8 assists per game, though he can become too deferential. Indiana is certainly at its best when Haliburton balances distribution and shot-making, but his pass-first mentality trickles down to his teammates, who — rather than focus on iso actions to stack points and stats — work to find the open man. 'I just want to impact winning,' Haliburton said Tuesday, May 27, after his historic triple-double in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. 'I'm just trying to do that to the best of my ability. We're building something special here. We're having a lot of fun with what we're doing. I feel like I'm at the forefront along with a lot of these guys. I'm just trying to play the right way." 'Better than the sum of the parts' Aside from Haliburton, the Pacers also need players who can score from all three levels. Turner is an excellent example, a center who can knock down 3s just as comfortably as he can lace mid-range jumpers and work in the post. Shooting guard Aaron Nesmith ignited for six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and backup center Thomas Bryant, who had been out of the rotation, drained 3-of-4 from deep in the decisive Game 6. 'I think the whole is better than the sum of the parts,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Wednesday, June 4, when asked about teams coached by Carlisle. 'Almost consistently across every year he's ever coached, the team is better than their sum. I think that's a reflection of him. 'His teams play a clear identity, stay in character through all the ups and downs. That identity has changed over the years based on his teams, the league trends. But his teams are always in character. This year is certainly no exception.'
Chicago Tribune
40 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Divine revelations: Pope Leo XIV's attendance at 2005 World Series leaves champion White Sox with an immaculate legacy
In the moment, the man who will go on to become the most recognizable religious leader in the world looks nervous. He looks as though even his considerable faith can be tested by the whims of his favorite baseball team. As if, perhaps, he's offering a silent prayer for one more out. In the moment, Robert Prevost, the native South Sider destined to become first American-born pope, is at the mercy of fickle spirits with Old Testament tempers. The baseball gods can be cruel and smiting, especially in Chicago, and Prevost has to understand this as well as anyone. One day people will come to see where he sat, to have their pictures taken and to feel a connection to him and their faith. One day soon, on Saturday, the team he roots for, the Chicago White Sox, will host an outdoor Mass in his honor and in celebration of a moment they shared. But the pilgrimages and the Mass will come a long time after he stands, like tens of thousands around him stand, in the anxious delirium of the top of the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. It is then when the television camera finds him, by chance or by fate. There are two outs and the White Sox, holding a 5-3 lead against the Houston Astros, have their hard-throwing 24-year-old closer, Bobby Jenks, on the mound. The energy in what was then called U.S. Cellular Field radiates through the broadcast. Joe Buck, narrating the play-by-play, reiterates that it's the first World Series game in Chicago since 1959 and, after a 95-mph fastball from Jenks, the Sox 'are two strikes away from a win here in 2005 in Game 1.' The noise increases and then it happens in a quick shot of the crowd. 'What are the odds?' someone asks many years later in the comment section under the video, after it becomes clear that Prevost, the Chicago-born priest and future Pope Leo XIV, is in the stands, dressed not in the black and white of clerical garb but that of a White Sox loyalist, in what looks to be a jersey under a coat. He's not too far above the home dugout, hoping — praying? — for one final out. The moment on TV lasts three seconds, maybe less, but when it reemerges almost 20 years later, not long after white smoke rises from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, it is reborn. It conjures questions of divinity. It symbolizes faith. It provides proof, the most ardent Catholics among White Sox supporters might attest, of the existence of a higher power. At the least it is celebrated, the sight of Prevost next to his friend Ed Schmit III and Schmit's son, Ed IV, then 5 years old. Prevost, 20 years before his election as pope, still young in the face, wears an antsy smile. He bows his head and then looks up, toward the scoreboard. Next to him, Schmit holds his boy in one arm and flashes two fingers, for two outs, with his free hand. Anticipation builds. Jenks wastes no time. Two more pitches result in two more strikes, the final one a 96-mph blur, and exactly 33 seconds after Prevost appears on screen, Game 1 is over. The crowd erupts. A rush of fireworks goes off over center field. Ozzie Guillén, then the 41-year-old White Sox manager, offers quick fist bumps in the dugout and embraces Jenks with a big smile. For almost 20 years, the final moments of that game remain a footnote in the larger story of the White Sox's four-game sweep. They're lost amid Jermaine Dye's steady hitting and Paul Konerko's seventh-inning grand slam in Game 2; almost forgotten around Chicago in the joy surrounding the Sox's third World Series championship, and first (and still only) since 1917. But then come the revelations: the white smoke in Vatican City, Prevost's election and transformation to Pope Leo XIV, an American city's pride in the ascension of one of their own. There are memes: 'Da Pope,' and Holy Communion with Vienna Chicago-style hot dogs and deep dish pizza; the new pope blessing everyone but cursing Green Bay. Mild sacrilege, arguably, but funny. And there are questions, including those about his baseball loyalties. There is, at first, something like a false prophecy — that the pontiff is a Cubs fan. Soon come the firm corrections, the now-viral photo and video from Game 1 of the '05 Series, and the proof of his allegiance. Pope Leo XIV's oldest brother is a Cubs fan, but the pope, himself, never wavered from his South Side roots. 'We used to give each other grief all the time,' Louis Prevost, 73, says of their childhood. 'And in those days, the Cubs were pretty sad … 'When I saw the picture (from the 2005 World Series), I was like, 'How the heck did he get into that?' But that was him at the game there. That was his thing. He liked to get out and go to a game once in a while. Eat a hot dog. Have some pizza. Like any other guy in Chicago on the South Side.' In the moment that night in October 2005, Robert Prevost indeed looks like any other guy from the South Side. That has become a big part of the allure. The night has taken on a sense of timelessness. Two decades later, people want to revisit it. Some are making pilgrimages to Rate Field, now home to one of the most hapless teams in baseball, to feel closer to Pope Leo XIV. 'How special,' Guillén says one evening in May, after the White Sox unveiled a mural in honor of Pope Leo XIV. Guillén is 61 now and sitting in a green room above home plate at Rate Field, where he works as an analyst on the Chicago Sports Network. He's dressed in his TV clothes and like a lot of people these days, the 2005 World Series has come to feel more spiritual for him, too. 'Like, this man was here,' Guillén says of the pope. 'That really hits you in the face. 'Like, what a moment.' The connection to Pope Leo XIV means more to Guillén because of his deep ties to the White Sox, as a player and manager, and because of his established roots in Chicago, his adopted hometown. But it goes beyond that, too, given his faith. Guillén grew up in a religious home in his native Venezuela and spent three years carrying the cross in a Catholic church, an altar boy with a talent for baseball. He says the church provided structure — the only things he did was 'play (baseball), go to school and be the altar boy' — and refuge. It wasn't uncommon, Guillén says, for his priest to give him money because Guillén grew up with little of it. Even as a boy, the future Major League shortstop knew that one day he'd name his first-born son after that priest. And indeed, Ozzie Guillén Jr.'s middle name is Eduardo, after 'Padre Eduardo' from his father's homeland. In the days after the election of Pope Leo XIV, the younger Guillén posed the question his father hadn't yet pondered: Did he ever think, growing up as an altar boy in Venezuela, that the pope would know who he was? Guillén laughed. 'I said, 'He don't know who I am,'' Guillén says. To which his son replied: 'Of course, he does. He was in there (for the World Series). You were the manager.' Guillén's wife is 'very, very Catholic,' he says, and years ago, during a visit to Rome, they had occasion to visit with Pope Francis. The Guilléns took pride in the first Latin American pope in history. When he died in April, Guillén says his wife cried. She spent weeks watching the news coverage, waiting to learn of Pope Francis' successor, only to find out it was a Chicago-born priest who rose through the church during his years in Peru. And not only that — but that he happened to be a White Sox fan who sat near the dugout in the 2005 World Series, cheering on her husband and his players. 'It should make it more special for all the guys who wear the uniform, knowing they were playing in front of' the future Pope Leo XIV, Guillén says. 'Look where he is now.' Guillén wants to take another trip to Rome with his wife. He hopes the new pope might bless him. 'I want to meet him,' he says. Looking back, it's easy to become swept away in the spirituality of it all. The feeling that perhaps a higher power really was at work. It's enough to turn skeptics into believers. The White Sox won all four of those World Series games by no more than two runs. They overcame deficits in two of them. They rallied from two runs down with Konerko's grand slam in the seventh inning of Game 2, only to lose the lead in the top of the ninth and then win on Scott Podsednik's unlikely home run in the bottom of the inning. They trailed by four in Houston in Game 3, then rallied again and won in 14 innings. They scored the lone run of Game 4 in the eighth inning, only for Jenks in the bottom of the ninth to allow a leadoff single before retiring three consecutive batters to close out the Series. And that run of good fortune, of the baseball gods smiling kindly after so many years of cursed luck, began in some ways in Game 1. It began with the future pope watching not more than two dozen rows behind the Sox dugout. With future President Barack Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois, also in attendance. It has to be the first and only sporting event in history with a future pope and future U.S. president among the crowd, both rooting for their neighborhood's team. 'As my fellow South Siders know, it has been a long time coming,' Obama said during a speech on the Senate floor the day after the Sox's victory in Game 4. He referenced how appropriate it felt that the final out came on a throw that was on time 'by only half a step;' how the White Sox won four games by a total of six runs. 'Win by the skin of your teeth,' Obama said. 'Win or die trying, that's our motto this year.' 'I had the privilege of attending Game 1 of the World Series on Saturday,' he said moments later, 'and the fans in and around the park were a cross-section of the city.' Few scenes spoke more to that than the one in Section 140, down along the third base line. There, in row 19, a Chicago-born priest of the Augustinian Order, a former Peruvian missionary then based in Rome, stood alongside three generations of South Siders to cheer on a Venezuelan-born manager leading a team that came to embody a city's identity. The mural honoring that long-ago night is painted on one of the pillars at the entrance of Section 140, and pays homage to the dual identities of the man depicted. In the larger image, there's Pope Leo XIV, in full papal regalia, lifting his right arm as if to offer a blessing. In a smaller one, in the top right, there's Robert Prevost, then known as Father Bob, attending Game 1 in 2005. It's a screenshot of the moment the camera found him in the top of the ninth. There's little Eddie Schmit next to him and his father, Eddie III. Just out of the frame is Ed Schmit Jr., who was closest of all to Father Bob and who knew him well from their work at St. Rita High School, where Father Bob sometimes taught and where Schmit Jr. was an alum and founding board member. About a dozen members of the Schmit family gathered for the mural's unveiling last month. Schmit Jr. died in July 2020 of pancreatic cancer, but his memory loomed large. 'He is just smiling down,' said Father Tom McCarthy, former principal at St. Rita and a longtime friend of both Schmit Jr. and the pope. Father Bob called Schmit Jr. often in his final days and their conversations never ended without Schmit sharing his belief that Prevost would be pope one day. It was something Schmit thought for a long time, from back when Father Bob blessed family babies and when Schmit often offered him Sox seats that have been in his family since 1983 at the old Comiskey Park. The site of the mural and the pope's seat in Section 140 is now something like a holy site, a shrine for the curious and the more spiritual. It's not a stretch to say people are making pilgrimages to it. On the first Monday in June, the line to take pictures with Pope Leo XIV's likeness stretches well into the concourse. It curls around the Mini Melts ice cream stand and ends near the beer counter where 16-ounce tall boys go for $12.99. A nearby usher, Keith Coplen Jr., says it's his first night on the job, and that he's nervous because he's in charge of the aisle of the mural. He prepares for the crowd but takes comfort in his surroundings and before it becomes too busy he takes a breath. 'I think Jesus is with me,' he says, nodding in the direction of the artwork next to him. Eighteen rows down, two men are on an expedition and stop when they find what they're looking for: Seat 2 in Row 19 of Section 140. It's Father Bob's seat from that night in 2005. They take turns sitting in it and take pictures of each other and, as Catholics, they feel drawn to the location, even if 20 years have gone by. 'I had to see this,' one of them, Dick Schindel, says as he leans against the row. Up above, Coplen is keeping count of those who come to the mural. There's a dozen, two dozen, more than 50 less than an hour before the first pitch, and 161 and counting when the Sox take the field. The rush grows busier the closer it gets to game time. People approach and make the sign of the cross. Families arrange themselves for the perfect picture. Some hold up prayer hands. Some hold out their phones for selfies. 'He's blessing me!' one woman yells to her friends, after she has stood beneath Pope Leo XIV's extended right arm. The White Sox are in last place again and the upper deck is closed again and the team's descent is perhaps proof of the limits of God's power, or priorities. For one night 20 years ago, though, something divine happened here. Believers were made. Faith rewarded. The spirit lingers, for those who seek it.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Duplantis headlines Oslo Diamond League, Warholm eyes 300m hurdles showdown
Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis headlines a star-studded Diamond League meet in Oslo on Thursday featuring eight other champions from the Paris Olympics. AFP Sport looks at five stand-out events at the sixth meeting of the 15-event Diamond League circuit where athletes have collectively won more than 15 individual Olympic gold medals and over 20 world championship golds: Advertisement Women's 100m Julien Alfred made history at the Olympics last summer when she won a first ever medal for her tiny island homeland of Saint Lucia. Her personal best of 10.72sec is matched in the Oslo field by 36-year-old Ivorian veteran Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith. But Alfred will likely come under more pressure from the British pair of Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita. Men's 5,000m Oslo's Bislett Stadium is known as a venue where world records are regularly set. When a world-class field lines up for the 5,000m, they'll be chasing what could be the 72nd world record set at the venue since Adriaan Paulen established the first one back in 1924. Advertisement Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet missed it by just over a second when he clocked 12:36.73 in the Norwegian capital last season. This year, both Gebrhiwet and his compatriots Yomif Kejelcha, who finished second last year in 12:38.95, and Berihu Aregawi, with a personal best of 12:40.45, are all lining up with one goal in mind: breaking Joshua Cheptegei's world record of 12:35.36. Men's 800m If the race over 5km proves to be a mouth-watering clash, also don't rule out the 800m, where meet organisers have brought together what they say is the strongest line-up they've ever assembled. Kenyan legend David Rudisha holds the stadium record of 1:42.04 from 2010. Advertisement But that could be under threat from compatriot and reigning Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Algeria's Djamel Sedjati and France's Gabriel Tual, respectively second, fifth and sixth fastest ever over the two-lap race. Men's pole vault Duplantis remains head and shoulders above the rest, having bettered his own world record to 6.27m in February on the back of a 2024 season when he not only won Olympic gold but also broke the world record three times. The US-born Swede has also registered the 11 highest jumps in the history of the sport, improving the world record one centimetre at a time from 6.17 to 6.27. Advertisement He is the undisputed king of the event and was also named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for 2024. Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt is the only track and field athlete to have previously won the award. The world's top eight will compete in Oslo, three of them having cleared the 6m mark, notably Greece's Emmanouil Karalis, who won Olympic silver in Paris and has a personal best of 6.01m and American Sam Kendricks (6.06). Men's 300m hurdles Home favourite Karsten Warholm headlines a sparkling field in the 300m hurdles, an event that was granted official status earlier this year, but is yet to have a ratified world record. The Norwegian clocked a best of 33.05sec in Xiamen this season. Advertisement Warholm, reigning world champion and world record holder in the 400m hurdles, will be up against Bislett debutant Rai Benjamin of the USA, the Olympic champion, and Brazil's Alison dos Santos. The trio's personal bests are the three fastest times ever run in the 400m hurdles. Between them they own the 19 fastest races in the event's history and also won all medals at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games. Now it's time for crowing rights in the shortened race. "I believe the introduction of the 300m hurdles can help bring in new athletes now that the long hurdles expand from one to two events," said Warholm. lp/pi
