2006 Pioneer Award: Kristin Huckshorn By Lisa Kennelly
2006 AWSM Intern with The Star-Ledger The award has a new name, but its meaning has never been clearer. AWSM honored two of its living legends at Sunday’s luncheon, giving Kristin Huckshorn of The New York Times the newly christened Mary Garber Pioneer Award. The Pioneer Award has been given since 1999, when it was awarded to Lesley Visser. This year, the name was changed to honor Garber, one of the first female sports journalists. Although Garber spoke to the group through a video and Huckshorn from a microphone, their messages about encouraging younger women to achieve in sports journalism were the same. “I thank you in the name of all the young girls around the country,” said Garber, who started writing for the Winston-Salem Journal in the 1940s, at a time when it was unprecedented for a woman to cover sports. “This is to show them that the opportunity is there for them.” Garber, 90, could not travel to the convention because of her failing health. AWSM President Joanne Gerstner told luncheon attendees that Garber had tried to make a video to thank AWSM, but her physical condition made it impossible. Instead, Gerstner aired a video Garber produced for the APSE convention last year, when she became the first woman to win the prestigious Red Smith Award. Garber charged sports journalists to be accurate and fair and to rise to meet the challenges before them. “Thank you for what has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” she concluded. Huckshorn, deputy sports editor at the Times and one of four founders of AWSM almost 20 years ago, described how far the organization has come since its founding in an Oakland restaurant. She also talked about how much remains to be done. “We need to push our outreach. We need to encourage bright young women to go into sports journalism,” Huckshorn said. “And to get them hired and promoted, we need more women in management.” Huckshorn recalled AWSM’s origins. Out of a post-49ers game dinner emerged AWSM’s first convention at a hotel in Oakland. Huckshorn also explained the basis for the name of the convention’s hospitality suite. At a stress-relieving seminar, participants were encouraged to close their eyes, hum, and seek out their own “Island of Peace.” What started as a joke, Huckshorn said, became a place of inspiration, support, and friendship. “You walk out of that room feeling like you could do anything,” said Huckshorn, adding how much she admired the women in the audience for the obstacles they had overcome in their careers as sports journalists. A full table of New York Times co-workers was on hand to support Huckshorn, including New York Times sports editor Tom Jolly. “She’s incredibly committed to not only women in journalism but journalism, period,” Jolly said. Christine Brennan, who won the Pioneer Award in 2004 and introduced Huckshorn, put it simply. “If it were not for Kristin, there would be no AWSM,” Brennan said. Back | 
