UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A Penn State sports journalism student authored the best essay in a national scholarship competition conducted by the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation and earned a $5,000 scholarship.
Emily Kaplan, a senior from Montclair, N.J., won the foundation's Judges Award for 2012. Her essay about Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien was considered the best among nominees from 30 colleges and universities. Kaplan was one of four students from across the nation to receive a scholarship this year, and the fourth Murray Scholar from Penn State in the past six years.
Kaplan covers Penn State as an intern with The Philadelphia Inquirer. She covered the Olympic Games in London for the U.S. Olympic Committee as part of an exclusive opportunity for students in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, which is housed in the College of Communications at Penn State. In her first three years at Penn State, Kaplan covered women's volleyball and men's basketball for The Daily Collegian. She covered Penn State football and other sports for the Associated Press in 2011.
"It is an absolute honor to win this award," said Kaplan, who has completed internships at NHL.com and MLB Network. "Considering what Jim Murray means to journalism in this country, I am extremely humbled. I've been so fortunate to be taught by wonderful teachers and mentors at Penn State and the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism."
Josh Moyer, who became Penn State's first Murray Scholar in 2007, works for ESPN's Recruiting Nation. Mark Viera, a 2008 selection who has worked at The Washington Post and The New York Times, is a law student at the University of Michigan. Shane McGregor, a 2011 winner, is a reserve quarterback on the football team and will graduate with degrees in journalism and English.
"Emily has earned the privilege to have the name Jim Murray on her resume," said Malcolm Moran, the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the Curley Center. "The high level of competition the foundation has created has made this one of the greatest honors an aspiring sports journalist can receive."
Moran cited the help of O'Brien, Jeff Nelson, assistant athletic director for communications, and John S. Nichols, professor emeritus of communications, a member of the search committee that selected O'Brien. "Their cooperation was essential," Moran said.
Kaplan learned of her scholarship while standing in Leicester Square in London, after her first day of sightseeing three weeks into the Olympic trip. A national panel of judges reviewed the numerous scholarship submissions. Those judges were foundation board members Neil Everett of ESPN; Erin Gilhuly, president of CV Strategies; Bill McCoy, president of the foundation; Linda McCoy-Murray, the foundation’s inaugural president and CEO; Arash Markazi of ESPN (a 2002 Murray Scholar); Steve Brener, president of BZA Associates; and Michael Palmer, managing partner, Palmer Hospitality Group.
The foundation was established in 1999 to perpetuate the legacy of Murray, the late sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times from 1961 until his death in 1998. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1990. Murray received the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing in 1987. He was named "America's Best Sportswriter" by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association 14 times, and went into the association's Hall of Fame in 1978.
Murray graduated from Trinity College Hartford, Conn., in 1943. He worked for several newspapers and was one of the founders of Sports Illustrated.
Penn State was added to the foundation’s scholarship program in 2006. The Curley Center -- established in 2003 as the first academic endeavor of its kind in U.S. higher education -- explores issues and trends in sports journalism through instruction, outreach, programming and research. The center was named in 2006 for John Curley, the retired president, CEO and chairman of the Gannett Co. Inc. and the first editor of USA Today. Curley also served as a founding co-director of the center.
Kaplan’s scholarship increases the total the foundation has awarded to Penn State students to $25,000 since 2007. For more information about the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, visit www.jimmurrayfoundation.org online.