Awards

The Media School Distinguished Alumni Award (2019)

About Tracy D. Hurd

One of the first women to cover sports for a major publication, Tracy Dodds has been a trailblazer for women in journalism. Often faced with sexism and hostility, Dodds carried her wit, humor and gumption with her through a long and lucrative career in sports journalism.

The myriad sports Dodds has covered include Big Ten football and basketball, hockey, auto-racing, boxing, swimming and diving. In 1984, 1988 and 1996, she was an on-site reporter and editor at the Olympics.

In 1988, she helped found the Association for Women in Sports Media, later serving as its national president. She was the first elected female president of the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2014, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame.

Before graduating from Indiana University in 1973 with a degree in journalism and political science, Dodds got her start at the Bloomington Herald-Telephone, now the Herald-Times, under the mentorship of sports editor Bob Hammel. In 1974, she was hired as a sportswriter for the Milwaukee Journal. It was an uphill battle. Her first week, the Journal's assistant sports editor, Bill Dwyre, told her she never should have been hired. Seven years later, Dwyre would write her a glowing farewell column as she moved on to the Houston Post.

At the Post, Dodds was the only female conference columnist, covering the now-defunct Southwest Conference. Less than two years later, Dwyre would call her and offer her a coveted position at the Los Angeles Times. Dodds' years at the L.A. Times would have her covering UCLA and the Kings.

After many years as a writer, Dodds moved into sports editing. She served as assistant sports editor at the L.A. Daily News, assistant sports editor at the Orange County Register, sports editor at the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman and associate sports editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Upon leaving the Plain Dealer, Dodds returned to Indiana to write for The Indianapolis Star before moving home to Lafayette to be closer to family and to start her next career. She's now director of grants at the YWCA of Greater Lafayette, where she helps further the organization's mission of eliminating racism and empowering women.