In the News-Corky Lamm Award

Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year Award Given to Elkhart's Bill Beck

Sportswriter and editor Bill Beck of the Elkhart Truth was named the 2011 Corky Lamm Indiana Sportswriter of the Year in March. He received the award at the Hall of Fame Banquet in Indianapolis on April 16, 2011. Mr. Beck has been on the staff of the Elkhart Truth since 1984 and sports editor since 1999. The award is given by the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in honor of Corky Lamm (1915-1974), a sportswriter and sports cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News

Originally from Wayne County, Indiana, Robert Corwin "Corky" Lamm graduated from DePauw University in 1937 and served in the Army during World War II. He spent most of his adult life in Indianapolis, covering sports for the city's two main daily papers. He  was elected to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.

You can read the story of Mr. Beck's award at the website of the Elkhart Truth, here. And you'll find the website of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, here.

To non-Hoosiers, Corky Lamm's cartoon from the Indianapolis News (Nov. 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated) may be incomprehensible. The Old Oaken Bucket, though, is the trophy traded back and forth between Indiana University and Purdue University football teams since 1925. On the left is Purdue's coach, Jack Mollenkopf, and on the right, his rival from Indiana, Phil Dickens. Purdue won the game that year, 21 to 15, taking the trophy back home to West Lafayette.

Text copyright 2011, 2024 Terence E. Hanley