Phil Pash wrote for newspapers, big and small, for 50 years ... columns, news, features in the areas of sports, politics, outdoors, auto racing and many other topics.
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The following is from the Oct. 19, 2005, Up & Down the Rock column. It deals with awards:
Hitting for Cycle: Well, I guess it amounts to hitting for the cycle--a first, a third and now a second. Those would be awards I've won after quitting newspapers for which I wrote the prize-winning columns in the last six years.
The most recent was the second place, which was in the sports column category in the Illinois Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. Placement of winners was announced at the annual IPA convention Oct. 14 in Springfield. The Rock River Times, where the column was published, told me in August that I was among the winners.
This was the first time I entered the IPA contest. I could have entered last year, but didn't.
If you've been following along, you know I quit the weekly paper on July 1--which makes this the third award I have won in recent years after I quit a paper.
I quit the Rockford Register Star in May 2000, also because I didn't agree with the way bosses did things. Later that same month, I was informed I won an award for a column I wrote that was published in 1999.
The column, "Regardless of helmet he wore, (Walter) Payton was class act," took first place in column writing in the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association contest. The late Chicago Bear great got into auto racing after he retired from the NFL, including racing at Blackhawk Farms Raceway near Rockton.
Then I got a third place in column writing from AARWBA for "What on earth is NASCAR trying to do now?" It was published in the local daily in 2000, before I left.
I honestly don't know how many awards I've won in the 50 years I wrote for newspapers. Maybe 20 or more. I do remember a first place for a column published in the New York Times when I wrote the About Motor Sports column and an Associated Press Column of the Year for Illinois in the 1970s.
More than 4,000 entries from 143 newspapers were received in this year's IPA contest and were judged by the Minnesota Newspaper Association in July.
The Illinois Press Association is a statewide trade association representing nearly all of the daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois. With more than 600 members, the Springfield-based group is the largest statewide newspaper association in the country.
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The following is from the Jan. 23, 2006, World of Wheels column:
* Hugh G. Deery Memorial Award: I hope I can be forgiven for making an item about me the lead for today's World of Wheels column. On Jan. 21, I received the Hugh G. Deery Memorial Award at Rockford Speedway's 58th Champions Banquet. It means a lot to me because I knew and liked Hughie, the track's owner who died in 1984. One of the toughest stories I had to write in my 50 years of newspapering was about Hughie's death from natural causes. It was made especially tough because two of his sons brought information and a photo of Hughie to me at the News Tower. I saw the sorrow in their eyes and that made me doubly sad. Try writing a page one news story about a friend's death under those conditions. Years ago, I wrote a column comparing Hughie to the great showman P.T. Barnum. His family had it enlarged into wallpaper, covering one whole wall of his upstairs office in Forest Hills Lodge. That's now Jody Deery's office, and the wall still has the same wallpaper. Also, the first winner of the Deery Award, in 1975, was the late Larry O'Brien, who raced at the speedway. Larry was a friend and a fishing buddy, and we spent many hours together in a boat and at his and Helen's cabin in northern Wisconsin. So getting the award had a double meaning for me. The Deery Award is the track's highest honor and it yearly goes to a person who "does the most to foster the positive image of auto racing both at and away from the track." I especially liked this passage from the remarks introducing the 2005 award winner: "Although he has a passion for our sport, he is a true reporter of fact and never let that interfere with his reporting of the truth. Some would say he is stubborn and opinionated, others would say he is genuine, very much like the person this award is named after." High praise, indeed, and once again, thank you. The award has great meaning for me. I appreciate it and will cherish it.
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