At the PFWA Annual Meeting in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center on February 1 during Super Bowl LIII week, the PFWA membership elected a slate of officers and board members for the 2019-2020 seasons.
Newsday
PFWA President 2019-2020
Bob Glauber, national football columnist for Newsday, who became the 29th PFWA president in April in a change of leadership for the organization, was elected to a full two-year term as president. Also elected to two-year officer terms were Lindsay Jones, The Athletic (first vice-president); Dan Pompei, Bleacher Report (second vice-president) and Mike Sando, ESPN.com (secretary-treasurer).
The PFWA members in attendance also elected four at-large board members to two-year terms: Mike Jones, USA Today, Jeff Legwold, ESPN.com; Jenny Vrentas, Sports Illustrated/The MMQB and Charean Williams, Profootballtalk.com.
The PFWA in mid-2018 changed from a structure that had division representatives who made up a board of directors to a structure with individual chapters for every NFL team and for national NFL writers. The new structure includes a local chapter president and vice president to work with NFL clubs on media access issues at a local level. Increased activity at the chapter level has helped drive a roughly 40 percent increase in membership, which has now surpassed 300.
Also, during the Annual Meeting, the PFWA Art Rooney Scholarship committee, chaired by Clark Judge (Talk of Fame Sports Network), announced that Samantha Wexell, a freshman at Ohio University and the daughter of Jim Wexell of Steelers Digest, was selected as the 31st recipient of the Rooney Scholarship. The runner-up was Charles Rock, son of Tom Rock of Newsday, who is a freshman at the University of Albany. The Rooney Scholarship is awarded each year to a child of a PFWA member who is entering his or her freshman year of college. Applications for the Rooney Scholarship are available in early summer each year from the PFWA for children who graduated high school in the spring.
Glauber used the opportunity of the Annual Meeting to present Judge, Pompei, Sando and fellow longtime PFWA leaders Howard Balzer and Chris Pika with plaques in appreciation of their distinguished service to the organization. All remain valued resources.
PFWA PRESIDENTS: 1964-65 — George Strickler, Chicago Tribune; 1966-67 — Lewis “Tony” Atchison, Washington Star; 1968-69 — Edwin Pope, Miami Herald; 1970-71 — William Guthrie, New Haven Journal-Courier; 1972-73 — Larry Felser, Buffalo News; 1974-75 — Larry Fox, New York Daily News; 1976-77 — Bob Roesler, New Orleans Times-Picayune; 1978-79 — John Steadman, Baltimore News-American; 1980-81 — Dick Connor, Denver Post; 1982 — Paul Zimmerman, Sports Illustrated; 1983-84 — Cooper Rollow, Chicago Tribune; 1985-86 — Vito Stellino, Baltimore Sun; 1987-88 — Glenn Sheeley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; 1989-90 — Don Pierson, Chicago Tribune; 1991-92 — Ira Miller, San Francisco Chronicle; 1993-94 — Vic Carucci, Buffalo News; 1995-96 — Len Pasquarelli, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; 1997-98 — Steve Schoenfeld, Arizona Republic; 1999-2000 — John Clayton, ESPN; 2001-02 — Adam Schefter, Denver Post; 2003-04 — John McClain, Houston Chronicle; 2005-06 — David Elfin, Washington Times; 2007-08 — Alex Marvez, FoxSports.com; 2009-10 — Charean Williams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram; 2011-12 — Mark Gaughan, Buffalo News; 2013-14 — D. Orlando Ledbetter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; 2015-16 — Jeff Legwold, ESPN.com; 2017 — Jim Trotter, ESPN; 2018-20 — Bob Glauber, Newsday.
ABOUT THE PFWA: The Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA) is the official voice of pro football writers, promoting and fighting for access to NFL personnel to best serve the public. The PFWA, established in 1964, is made up of accredited writers who cover the NFL and the 32 teams daily. Bob Glauber, the national football columnist for Newsday, is the organization’s president for the 2019-2020 seasons, while Lindsay Jones of The Athletic is the PFWA’s first vice-president, Bleacher Report national columnist Dan Pompei is the second vice-president and ESPN.com’s Mike Sando is the organization’s secretary-treasurer. Follow the PFWA at ProFootballWriters.org and on Twitter at @PFWAwriters.