By Lian Bunny
News Assignment Editor
Joseph Pinter, St. Bonaventure University senior, has been named the school’s 11th Jim Murray Memorial Scholar.
The history and journalism mass communication double major is one of five winners of the foundation’s annual nationwide essay contest. Twenty-eight other universities with renowned journalism programs were invited to participate as well.
Each winner receives a $5,000 scholarship in honor of the late sportswriter Jim Murray.
According to Pinter, he knew about the award because Emily Steves, a senior journalism and mass communication major, won last year. Journalism dean Pauline Hoffmann asked Pinter to participate in the contest.
The instructions were to write “a feature story on a person or event that influenced your school’s sports history.”
Pinter wrote about Bill Swan, ’69, chair of the board of trustees during the university’s NCAA basketball scandal.
In 2003, the athletic department admitted basketball transfer Jamil Terrell, who had only a welding certificate, even though he did not have a NCAA-required associate’s degree. The registrar was overridden to admit him. The team ended up forfeiting the conference tournament and remaining games.
According to Pinter, Swan knew about the scandal and did not try to stop it.
“I wanted an honest, impartial story about Bill’s life to be told,” Pinter said. “Yes, he was a part of the scandal, but he was Bonaventure’s biggest supporter, and his love for the university was unquestioned. I wanted to show how his undying love for Bona’s ultimately led him to make the choices that he did. I tried to show him going from that crazy student to becoming a successful CEO and board of trustees chair.”
Journalism professor Paul Wieland said, “As someone who wrote a book on the same subject generally, I can testify to Joe’s story as being kind and well-written and pretty darn interesting.”
Pinter attended a congratulatory ceremony for the 2014 Murray Scholars at the Santa Anita Racetrack in California on Oct. 25.
The scholars and their families toured the Santa Anita Racetrack and the Rose Bowl. After watching the horse races, Pinter attended a Monte Carlo-themed banquet in which the winners received their awards and gave speeches.
“I had lots of help with the column, but without Denny Wilkins, Paul Wieland, Steve Campbell and Dennis Frank, I would surely not have won the competition,” Pinter said. “Being the 11th Murray Scholar from Bonaventure is the most important thing to me. The Jandoli school continues to produce students that compete nationally against top-ranked journalism schools such as Missouri, Syracuse and USC. That is a testament to the great faculty we have here.”
