Jack Bogaczyk

PORTSMOUTH, VA – FWAA member Jack Bogaczyk, an award-winning sports reporter and columnist in Roanoke, has been named to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame

Bogaczyk spent 28 years in the sports media business in Roanoke, nearly 27 of those in the newspaper business, first at The World-News and then The Roanoke Times after the merger of the two daily papers. At the Roanoke newspaper, Bogaczyk was a beat reporter, general assignment reporter, senior writer and lead columnist. He also wrote the newspaper’s Sports TV/Radio column for 19 years — one of the first in the nation to do that on a weekly basis. Bogaczyk won 13 national writing awards and 35 state honors in a daily newspaper career that started in 1966 while he was in high school.

While in Roanoke, Bogaczyk’s work focused mostly on major college athletics, and he was the beat reporter covering Virginia Military Institute and then Virginia Tech in a period from 1979 to 1988. His award-winning, 35-part series on Hokies athletics in 1985 contributed to administrative and culture changes in the Tech program.

That same year, he won the Virginia Horse Council’s media award for a series on the equine business in the Commonwealth. In his career, Bogaczyk covered the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the Super Bowl, the World Series, multiple Daytona 500s, 11 NCAA Final Fours, 28 NCAA basketball tournaments and 15 different college bowl games (31 total). The conference basketball tournaments he has covered include the ACC, Big East, Metro, Colonial, Southern, Atlantic 10, Big South, ODAC and WVIAC.

Other members of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2017, as chosen by the statewide Honors Court committee, were:

• Beth Anders, a former field hockey coach who spent 30 years at Old Dominion University and led them to 28 NCAA tournament appearances.
• Dre Bly, a three-time All-American football player at the University of North Carolina, Super Bowl XXXIV Champion and a two-time Pro Bowl selection.
• Bimbo Coles, a former Virginia Tech basketball standout who enjoyed a 14-year NBA career.
• Kim Hamilton Anthony, a former gymnast on the U.S. National Team, who was a six-time All-America selection at UCLA.
• Claudio Reyna, a three-time All-American soccer player at the University of Virginia and captain of the U.S. National Team.
• C.J. Woollum, a former Director of Athletics at Christopher Newport University and basketball coach who transformed CNU into a Division III powerhouse.

The 46^th Annual Induction Banquet will take place on Saturday, April 29 at the Renaissance Portsmouth-Norfolk Waterfront Hotel in Portsmouth as the headline event of Hall of Fame weekend. Tickets are now on sale. For more information, call (757) 393-8031 or visit www.vshfm.com.

About the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame & Museum:

Since 1972, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame & Museum has been proud to honor Virginia’s contributions to the world of sports. The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame & Museum is the Commonwealth’s official hall of fame, and one of only 16 throughout the nation. Their mission is to honor athletic excellence and serve as a nonprofit educational resource centered on health, math, science and character development programs, while inspiring visitors through sports history and interactive entertainment.