By Lauren Campbell / APSE Diversity Fellows
When Bill Plaschke didn’t receive any calls after applying to 50 internships during his senior year of college, he thought his days as a writer were done.
Fast forward to 2024, when the Los Angeles Times columnist received a phone call that made him cry when he was informed by Associated Press Sports Editors president Naila-Jean Meyers that he was the recipient of the Red Smith Award — considered the highest honor in sports journalism.
The award is voted on by Red Smith Award winners, APSE past presidents, APSE national officers, 10-year APSE members and alumni members who were part of APSE for at least 15 years.
Speaking at the Red Smith Award luncheon at APSE’s Summer Conference in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday, Plaschke said he should have “never had the chance” he did as a young writer.
“I had no connections. No references. No safety net,” he said. “Just words.”
Plaschke attended Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and became sports editor of the school’s paper. But the school didn’t have a strong athletics department. Still, Plaschke made it work because he had the power of words.
It was Plaschke’s words that helped pave the way for an illustrious career. What started as him covering senior tennis and Little League at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel led to a career that included coverage of World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, Beijing Olympics and NBA Finals.
From Florida, Plaschke moved to Seattle to work for the Post-Intelligencer and cover the Mariners. He then made his way to San Diego, and eventually Los Angeles to cover the city’s sports scene that included the Lakers’ three consecutive NBA championships from 2000-02.
It was Plaschke’s words that led to meaningful connections with late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who walked with Plaschke to his car after games.
“It was just us two,” Plaschke said. “It was just us off the record. … Kobe valued words.”
Words, of course, are important to a journalist. It’s what Plaschke valued, too, knowing his words could make readers happy, cry and even mad.
Plaschke credited his publications’ copy editors for “saving my ass every day for 44 years,” but there was one time in 2001 when that wasn’t the case.
“The Lakers had just swept the Sacramento Kings in the playoffs. I wrote a first-person column on the vantage point of the (locker) room,” he said, referencing a column he wrote as if he were the broom sweeping away the Kings. “I was in the room, and it was a Sunday, they didn’t have time to get to it. My [lead paragraph] was, ‘Easy Shaq, that’s my neck you got there.’ My second sentence was, ‘Careful Kobe, those bristles are real.’ The column was so bad the next day the Lakers’ locker room — even the players were making fun of me.”
But he said those who had his back over the course of his career allowed him to “be bad” and “the freedom to find myself,” and Plaschke finds himself among those who won the Red Smith Award.
Plaschke once thought he didn’t have a future in journalism. Now he has an impressive résumé that spans decades – including 28 years at the Los Angeles Times. He’s a two-time Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards top sports columnist, a nine-time APSE top sports columnist and LA Big Brothers/Big Sisters Man of the Year. He appears regularly on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” has authored six books and even has his own IMDB page.
Now, because of how his words have impacted people over the years in a career he never imagined, Plaschke has added the highest honor in sports journalism.
