Dan Pompei named McCann Award winner

Courtesy of the Pro Football Writers of America

Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune, who has covered the NFL for 28 years, has been selected as the 2013 Dick McCann Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA).

The McCann Award is given to a reporter who has made a long and distinguished contribution to pro football through coverage. The award is named for McCann, who was the first director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1962-67).

He will be presented with the McCann Award during the Enshrinees’ Gold Jacket Dinner on Friday, Aug. 2 as part of the 2013 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival. (RELATED: 2013 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival schedule>>>)

Pompei began his career writing for the school newspaper at Elmhurst College, from which he graduated in 1982. After further study in journalism at Columbia College, he returned to Elmhurst to serve as the school’s sports information director and began doing agate in 1983 at the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times needed additional manpower when the Chicago Bears got hot to begin the 1985 season on the way to winning Super Bowl XX, Pompei was sent to cover the Bears on a semi-regular basis. By the end of the season, he was the main reporter for news on the beat.

The Chicago-area native moved to The Sporting News in 1997. After a successful stint there, he went to work for the Chicago Tribune in 2007 as the paper’s Bears/NFL columnist, replacing the legendary Don Pierson, the PFWA’s 1994 McCann Award winner.

Who was Dick McCann? McCann was a longtime reporter in New York with several newspapers, the Newspaper Enterprise Association and King Features Syndicate. After a stint in the Navy in World War II, he was a sports columnist for the Washington Times-Herald in 1945. A year later, he joined the Washington Redskins as publicity director and was the club’s general manager from 1947-1962 before taking the job with the Hall of Fame before its 1963 opening.

Pompei, 51, is one of the 46 individuals on the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee and also serves as one of the nine members of the Hall of Fame’s Seniors Committee.

Pompei is the fourth Chicago Tribune writer to receive the McCann Award. George Strickler was the inaugural award winner in 1969. Cooper Rollow (1985) and Pierson were also honored by the PFWA.

“Dan’s work is that of a consummate professional, defined by his thorough reporting and lovely writing,” said Mike Kellams, the Tribune’s associate managing editor/sports. “He treats readers well. He treats his colleagues even better. It is only fitting that Dan joins Chicago Tribune greats Don Pierson, Cooper Rollow and George Strickler in receiving this award. As they have distinguished the Tribune’s reporters from the rest, so has Dan. We couldn’t be happier for him. It’s well deserved.”

See complete list of McCann Award winners, 1969-2013>>>

About the PFWA
The Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA) is the official voice of pro football writers, promoting and fighting for access to NFL personnel to best serve the public. The PFWA is made up of accredited writers who cover the NFL and the 32 teams on a daily basis. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter, who covers the Atlanta Falcons, is the organization’s president for 2013-15. Follow the PFWA on Twitter at @PFWAwriters.