Charging Buffalo Award

2010 Award Recipient: Mr. Erik Brady, Sportswriter for USA Today

Erik Brady was born in Buffalo on the day Roger Bannister ran history’s first sub-four-minute mile. This apparently destined Brady to his ink-stained life as a sports reporter. He wrote for student papers at Canisius High School and College, which led him to the Buffalo Courier-Express, where he succeeded the legendary Phil Ranallo as sports columnist — and where Brady met metro columnist Carol Stevens on the luckiest day of his life. The newspaper folded in 1982 on their one-month wedding anniversary. USA Today opened the same week and soon they were on their way to Washington. Brady landed in Sports (where he has written more cover stories, and more about Buffalo, than anyone else in the national paper’s history) and Stevens in News (where she is the managing editor).

Brady is a two-time winner of the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award given by the Center for the Study of Sport in Society in Boston (other winners over the years include Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford and NBC’s Bob Costas). Brady is also a multiple winner of writing awards given by the Associated Press Sports Editors and his work has appeared in the anthology "Best American Sports Writing". Brady has covered 10 Olympic Games as well as Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Finals and Stanley Cups (including, alas, 1999’s no-goal game in Buffalo). He has interviewed the likes of Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky — and Roger Bannister.

Brady and Stevens live in Arlington, Va. Their son Steve is an investment analyst for the IFC Asset Management Company, part of the World Bank Group in Washington. Their daughter Claire is a graduate student at the University of Virginia.

Brady attended his first Buffalo Nite in 1983 and has rarely missed one since. His guiding principle in journalism (and in life): The world spins on a Buffalo axis.

 

Charging Buffalo Award History
Since 1993, the HYSS honors a Buffalonian or friend of Buffalo with the “Charging Buffalo” Award to recognize career achievement. Past recipients include:

2009 - Donald E. Will, President and CEO of Will Poultry Company
2008 - Charles W. Roesch, owner of multifaceted restaurant and catering business
2007 - Bill Paxon, Buffalo area Congressman and lobbyist
2006 - Michael A. Fitzpatrick, General Secretary, International Association of Iron Workers
2005 - Tom Toles, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post
2004 - Jack Quinn, Buffalo area Congressman
2003 - Jack Kemp, John LaFalce, Hank Nowak, Buffalo area Congressman and Buffalo Nite Founders
2002 - Gwen Ifill, Managing Editor and Moderator, PBS Washington Week
2001 - Buffalo Nite, scheduled for September 12, cancelled
2000 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator, State of New York
1999 - Marv Levy, Head Coach of the Buffalo Bills
1998 - James T. Molloy, Doorkeeper, U.S House of Representatives
1997 - Thomas A. Constantine, Administrator, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
1996 - David O. “Doc” Cooke, Pentagon Administrator
1995 - Wolf Blitzer, CNN Television Correspondent
1994 - Mark Russell, Political Satirist
1993 - Tim Russert, Moderator of Meet the Press, NBC Washington Bureau Chief