Sid Hartman, the sports columnist who spent 75-plus years writing for the Minnesota Star Tribune up until his 2020 death at age 100, was among four people voted into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame, the organization announced Monday, Jan. 5.
Hartman and Greg Gumbel will be inducted posthumously. The other two inductees are CBS sportscaster James Brown and recently retired NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski. They were elected by NSMA members during December balloting and will be inducted during the organization’s national convention June 28-29, 2026, in Greensboro, N.C.
Hartman amassed more than 21,000 bylines in the Star Tribune. When he died in October 2020, he was still writing three times a week. He also was still making regular radio appearances on WCCO-AM, a role he had served for decades, and would still appear on television as well.
Brown is the host for CBS Sports’ “NFL Today,” a role he has held since 2006 after previously working for “Fox NFL Sunday” for 12 seasons. Wojnarowski is a three-time NSMA National Sportswriter of the Year who was one of the first “insiders” to break national news regularly. Gumbel was a regular voice on television with CBS for college basketball and the NFL before his death in December 2024 at age 78.
ESPN play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough was voted 2025 National Sportscaster of the Year, while Yahoo Sports college football reporter Ross Dellenger is the National Sportswriter of the Year.
The NSMA also announced its state winners, with former Star Tribune reporter Phil Miller named Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and Gophers play-by-play voice Mike Grimm being named Minnesota Sportscaster of the Year.
Miller retired in the fall after he covered the Twins for the Star Tribune from 2013 until this past season. He previously covering the team with the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and he also covered the Gophers football team and Timberwolves for the Star Tribune. Grimm has been calling Gophers games for Learfield Sports since 2006 and was named the state’s Sportscaster of the Year for the fifth time.
