Dave Smith

For its first nine years the Red Smith Award went to writers: columnists, mostly, and a broadcaster or two. In 1990 the Associated Press Sports Editors turned it on one of their own. Dave Smith, then running the sports section of The Dallas Morning News, became the first sports editor to receive it. The recognition was for the sections he built rather than the sentences he wrote.

There is no Wikipedia article about him, and this page is shorter than most in the archive for that reason. What follows is what the A.P.S.E.'s own record supports. Where the record is thin, we say so rather than fill the gap.

Smith was executive sports editor of The Boston Globe from 1970 to 1978. It was in those years, after attending an Associated Press Managing Editors conference, that he had the idea of a parallel organization for sports editors. The A.P.S.E. was formed in 1973, and Smith served as its president from 1974 to 1976, the only person to hold the office for a two-year term.

From Boston he went to The Washington Star, which he served from 1978 until 1981, the year the Star closed. He then took over the sports section of The Dallas Morning News and ran it from 1981 to 2004. Under him the section became one of the most decorated in the country in the A.P.S.E.'s own annual contest, which is the reason the award citation lists Dallas rather than Boston.

• The Boston Globe, executive sports editor, 1970–1978
• The Washington Star, 1978–1981
• The Dallas Morning News, sports editor, 1981–2004
• A.P.S.E. president, 1974–1976

The A.P.S.E. interviewed Smith for its fiftieth-anniversary series in 2023, which places him among the organization's living founders at that date. That interview, on video, is the best primary source we have located. We have not verified a birth date or birthplace and have left those fields blank rather than guess.

The first sports editor honored by the sports editors.

The Red Smith Award list on Wikipedia records the 1990 recipient as Dave Smith of The Dallas Morning News. The A.P.S.E. site confirms both the year and the fact that he was the first editor so recognized. If a fuller obituary or profile becomes available, this page will be expanded.