NEW YORK -- Ed Grant, whose career covering track and field began 66 years ago, has been named the recipient of the fourth Stan Saplin Sports Media Award. The award, named for the late sportswriter, track and field historian, and publicist who died in 2002, will be presented on Tuesday, February 23 during the 73rd Eastern States Championships at the New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armory, where the Media Center is named for Saplin. The ceremonies are set for 7 p.m.
Dr. Norbert Sander, President of the Armory Foundation, in making the announcement, said, “Ed Grant has been a dedicated and stalwart journalist in our sport, both at the Armory and elsewhere, since 1944. It is fitting that he is receiving this honor.”
The Stan Saplin Sports Media Award is presented annually to a journalist, public relations professional, executive, filmmaker or broadcaster who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of the sport.
Grant, 83, is a resident of Madison, N.J., who began covering high school sports for the Jersey Journal in 1944. After one and one-half years in the Army during World War II, he returned in 1946 and continued at the Journal until 1957. He began covering track for the Newark News in 1947, moving to the Newark Star-Ledger in 1971, where he continued until 1990. Starting in 1957, he also worked at the Catholic Advocate in Newark in several positions, including News Editor and Managing Editor, retiring from that publication in 1988.
As if all of this were not enough, Ed started the publication New Jersey Track in 1967, and continues to publish it today. Over the years, he has also contributed high school track coverage to the New York Times.
Ed attended St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, followed by St. Peter’s College, where he was graduated in 1948.
He and his wife Catherine have been married 58 years.
Saplin was for over a half-century an enterprising publicist and historian for New York University, three other colleges, the Rangers hockey team, the Millrose Games and the New York City Marathon. He died on March 1, 2002, in New York University Hospital at the age of 88.
In 1934, Saplin earned a degree in accounting and finance from the NYU School of Commerce. From 1953 to 1969, he worked for the university variously as associate director and then director of public relations, director of sports publicity, director of community relations, director of alumni communications, founder and editor of the NYU Alumni News and special assistant to the president. He established the NYU Varsity Club and in 1994 he was inducted himself.
From 1946 to 1950, Saplin was public relations director of the New York Rangers, and for the next four years he was a sportswriter for The New York Journal-American. Later jobs included public relations director of Manharttanville College, Hebrew Union College and Baruch College, and director of the New York office of the Amateur Athletic Union. In 1966, Saplin became the New York correspondent for the Chroniocle of Higher Education.
From the 1950’s to the 1990’s, Saplin was the field events announcer at the Millrose Games. He was the historical editor of the monthly Track and Field News and frequently contributed retrospectives to The New York Times sports pages.
Saplin is survived by his second wife, the former Gail Cooper-Hecht, whom he married in 1992; two daughters, Anne Saplin and Elizabeth Saplin Morcillo, and a stepdaughter, Allison (Hecht) Held.
The inaugural Stan Saplin Sports Media Award was received by Frank Litsky, the veteran sports writer and editor of The New York Times, and former president of the New York Track Writers Association.
The second recipient was William J. (Bill) Miller, who started as a freelance sports reporter for The New York Times in 1947 and has been writing for the newspaper ever since. He has covered many and varied sports, but the sport he has covered the most is track and field.
The third recipient of the award was Bill Moore, the well-known sports photographer for the New York Amsterdam News.