Anderson Is Honored by Editors

Dave Anderson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist for the New York Times, received the Red Smith Award on Friday at the Associated Press Sports Editors Convention, but Anderson preferred to talk more about the man for whom the award is named than about himself.

“I put Red Smith in the same class with all the great American writers,” Anderson said. “Red did his art form as well as Hemingway did his. . . . But he always wanted to be referred to as ‘a newspaper stiff.’ ”

The Red Smith Award is presented by the editors to a writer who has made a major contribution to sports journalism. Smith was honored with the first award in 1981.

Anderson recalled buying the New York Herald-Tribune to read Smith’s column when he took the subway from Brooklyn to school. Anderson joined Smith and Arthur Daley as sports columnists for the New York Times in 1971, and Anderson received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary a decade later.

Talk about Anderson on Friday was left to others, including Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray, recipient of the Red Smith Award the second year it was presented and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Murray sent a personal message.

“All of us who have won the Red Smith Award move up a couple of lengths today with the inclusion of Dave Anderson,” Murray wrote. “Dave is, and always has been, a stakes horse. Our profession is lucky to have him. He’s always been fair, cheerful, honest, and no more respected person ever walked into a locker room--or a press room.

“He knows what he says matters, and he is scrupulous about saying it right. I’m proud to be in the same business. . . .”

Neil Amdur, sports editor of the New York Times, praised Anderson as a “team player” and as “a positive, upbeat kind of person” in addition to his well-known writing ability.

“And Dave still loves that competition . . .,” Amdur said. “He still can break stories.”

Dave Smith, the chairman of the APSE selection board and the deputy managing editor of the Dallas Morning News, said, “The one word that goes with this award is class , and that’s true again with this year’s award winner.”