2006 James J. Walker Award Long and Meritorious Service LARRY MERCHANT

Everybody Loves Larry: Kassim Ouma in postfight headgear

The BWAA has honored Merchant with the 2006 James J. Walker Award for long and meritorious service. In the past, he has received the Sam Taub Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. He'd be equally deserving of the James A. Farley Award for honesty and integrity, the A.J. Liebling Award for outstanding boxing writing or the Marvin Kohn Good Guy Award.

If Larry had chosen to fight inside the ring instead of outside it, who knows?  He might have won the Edward J. Neil Award for fighter of the year. After all, this is a man who ran 62 yards for a touchdown in the biggest game of his high-school career and made the team as a 5-foot-7-inch, 155-pound halfback in college. That latter fact is significant because the team was the University of Oklahoma in the midst of a 31-game winning streak under the aegis of the legendary Bud Wilkinson.

Merchant was sports editor of the Philadelphia Daily News at age 26 and later a columnist for the New York Post. He served as a reporter, commentator and producer for NBC and has authored three books (one hopes that a fourth will be forthcoming). His expertise extends to all major sports, but he's most closely identified in the public mind with boxing. He commentated on his first fight for HBO in 1978.

"My philosophy of commentary," Merchant said several years ago, "is to try to convey who the fighters are and what the event is about. It's not my job to be a cheerleader. I'm skeptical of hype and false narrative. I don't avoid talking about corruption in boxing. When a fighter performs poorly, I tell the audience that I think it's so.

"I look at the sports world as perfect with its imperfections. I don't make things up. My goal is to get viewers involved and be honest at the same time."

Jim Lampley has had the privilege of being Merchant's on-air partner for years. They've gotten to know each other well.  "Larry is one of the most intellectually disciplined people I've ever met," Lampley said. "He's a creative skeptic who expresses the unexpressed doubt and guides our telecast in a way that increases our integrity. ... He knows as much about the truths of boxing as any person I know."

When Larry Merchant embraces a sport, it conveys a special grace. The sweet science owes him for his presence, which has given boxing and each of us a bit more dignity and class.

James J. Walker Award