Journalism Award

Bob Baptist

Erie, Pennsylvania, (May 23, 1953)

Bob Baptist never was going to settle for a life without being involved in sports, and he found his niche while still in high school as a sportswriter.

A native of Erie, Pa., Baptist was a three-sport athlete at Erie Academy High School, but when he started to write about the school’s basketball team for the school newspaper, the Star, he found he had a knack and an affinity for journalism. “That’s when I figured out I wanted to be a sportswriter,” he said.

Baptist matriculated to Kent State University and soon after graduation caught on with The Columbus Dispatch, where he became one of the stalwarts of the sports staff. He covered The Ohio State University’s football program during the Earle Bruce years as well as the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns of the NFL. He made his mark during an 18-year stint as beat writer for the Buckeyes’ basketball team, and eventually Baptist became known as the Dean of the Big Ten basketball writers. In 2023, he was inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame.

Golf, however, was his longest-running assignment. He covered his first Memorial Tournament in 1978, and even after retirement from the Dispatch in 2015, he has never missed one since. His attendance at more than 50 major championships included his first Masters in 1986—one of the most monumental in golf history as Columbus native Jack Nicklaus, the Memorial Tournament Founder and Host, rallied on Sunday to win a record sixth Green Jacket.

Baptist, who serves as the Memorial Tournament historian, remains in awe of joining the pantheon of writers and broadcasters who have won the Memorial Golf Journalism Award. “I look at the other guys on the plaques in the [Muirfield Village Golf Club] Memorial’s press center, and they’re all giants of the game,” he said. “I think, How did I get this? I guess I’m the local knowledge honoree. But I have written more words and spent more days in that press center than anyone.”

Baptist lives in Pickerington, Ohio, with his wife, Vicki. They have a son, Ben, and three grandchildren.