Two Arkansans with north-central Arkansas roots are among this year’s inductees into the Arkansas Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame, with a Batesville native and a Melbourne native both set to be honored at a Springdale luncheon next week.
Steve Wright, a Batesville native and University of Arkansas graduate, will be inducted as the Hall’s sportswriter representative. Wright worked for the Northwest Arkansas Times, the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and also served as the Razorbacks’ women’s sports information director. Since 2006, he has freelanced for JM Associates, primarily covering the Bassmaster Elite Series. Wright is also an accomplished outdoors writer, having self-published “Ozark Trout Trails: A Fishing Guide for the White River System” in 1995 and co-authored “Arkansas Duck Hunters Almanac” with Steve Bowman in 1998. He previously won an Associated Press award for a Northwest Arkansas Times special publication tracing the White River from the Boston Mountains to the Mississippi River.
Tim Hamilton, a Melbourne native, will receive the Mike Harrison Award for Excellence in Sports Media — only the second time the award has been presented. Hamilton spent 32 years covering news and sports at KATV Channel 7, beginning as an intern in 1979. He won two Emmy Awards, for his coverage of Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign and the Peruvian War on Drugs, and was nominated for five others. Hamilton also earned five national and four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards during his career and covered the Razorbacks, including their 1994 men’s basketball national championship. He returned to his alma mater, Harding University, in 2012 to teach sports broadcasting.
Little Rock broadcaster Ray Tucker will be inducted as this year’s sportscaster representative. Tucker has been the radio play-by-play voice of Little Rock men’s basketball and host of the Trojans’ coaches’ radio and TV shows since 2000, and has worked in Arkansas sports media since 1971. He served as executive director of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame from 1988 to 2014 and is a two-time Arkansas Sportscaster of the Year, as named by the National Sports Media Association. Tucker is now co-host of “Ray Tucker’s Arkansas Outdoors” on KABZ-FM in Little Rock.
All three will be formally inducted during a Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon at noon July 30 at the Home2 Suites by Hilton in Springdale.
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