The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

director

Walter Byers Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Career Byers was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He served from ...

to serve the interests of journalists who cover

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

Scholarships

The USBWA annually awards college scholarships to students pursuing careers in sports journalism and to children of USBWA members.

Awards

The USBWA annually selects a

player of the year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

and

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...

s for both men and women in college basketball. The USBWA men's player of the year award, called the

Oscar Robertson Trophy The Oscar Robertson Trophy is given out annually to the outstanding men's college basketball player by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). The trophy is considered to be the oldest of its kind and has been given out since 195 ...

, was first established in 1959 and is considered to be the nation's oldest such

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An awar ...

in college basketball. The USBWA also selects a national

coach of the year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and association football — the award is called the "Manager of the Year" award. Some of the ...

for men and women, with the men's award named after coach

Henry Iba Henry Payne Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwest Missouri St ...

. The USBWA also chooses a

USBWA National Freshman of the Year The USBWA National Freshman of the Year, with the men's and women's versions respectively named the Wayman Tisdale Award and Tamika Catchings Award, is an annual basketball award given to college basketball's most outstanding freshman male player ...

in men's and women's basketball. In addition, the USBWA presents a number of other awards: * Two Most Courageous Awards—one for men's basketball, and the other for women's basketball. Each is presented to a

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...

, or other individual connected with college basketball who demonstrates extraordinary courage in life. The women's version has been officially known as the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award, named after the legendary

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

coach, since 2012. Effective with the 2021 awards, the men's version is officially the

Perry Wallace Perry Eugene Wallace Jr. (February 19, 1948 – December 1, 2017) was an American lawyer who was a professor of law at Washington College of Law. He was the first African-American varsity athlete to play basketball under an athletic scholarship in ...

Most Courageous Award, named after the Vanderbilt player who was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to play that sport in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

. * The Katha Quinn award, in honor of the former Sports Information Director at St. John's University, to individuals who have excelled servicing the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

or provide an inspiration to sports writers. USBWA also divides the country into nine districts, naming for each a Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and an All-District Team.

Hall of fame

The USBWA also honors past and current members for career achievements with the USBWA

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

.Inductees are listed in the following order: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 (50th member), 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, Charter Inductees
USBWA Hall of Fame
U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Retrieved 2011-09-23.

Notes

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=http://www.sportswriters.net/usbwa/about/index.html, title=ABOUT THE USBWA, publisher=USBWA, access-date=8 May 2010 {{cite web, url=http://www.sportswriters.net/usbwa/news/2010/oscar100217.html, title=USBWA NAMES FINALISTS FOR 2010 OSCAR ROBERTSON TROPHY, publisher=USBWA, access-date=8 May 2010

External

Official website
College basketball mass media in the United States American sports journalism organizations Journalism-related professional associations Sports organizations established in 1956 Organizations based in Missouri

Scholarships

Awards

Hall of fame

See also

Notes

External