Lifetime Achievement Award: Fred Mitchell

Fred Mitchell is an award-winning sportswriter and columnist who spent over 41 years with the Chicago Tribune. He is the author of 12 books, including biographies with Bears Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Richard Dent and Cubs Hall of Farmers Billy Williams and Ryan Sandberg.

Hired in 1974 as the Tribune’s first African-American sportswriter, Mitchell’s stack of accolades encompass the Bill Gleason Outstanding Sportswriter of the Year, the NABJ pioneer award, the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame and the Gale Sayers Foundation “Outstanding Journalist Award.”

Each year since 2009, the National Football Foundation gives “The Fred Mitchell Award” to the nation’s most outstanding college placekicker, in honor of Mitchell, who set the NCAA College Division record for career kick scoring in 1968 at Wittenberg University. A longtime teacher, he now serves as an adjunct professor at DePaul University.

Video produced by Loyola University Chicago students: