2018 PFRA Awards

[Ken Crippen]

Press release going out today:
TURNEY, FARRAR AND TRANTER EARN PFRA AWARDS FOR 2018

The Professional Football Researchers Association has selected John Turney, Doug Farrar and Greg Tranter as the winners of the Association’s annual awards for 2018.

The PFRA is the world leader in research into the history of America’s favorite sport. The Association’s nearly 400 members produce both books and newsletter articles every year about the game’s past.

Turney will receive the Ralph Hay Award for lifetime achievement. Turney is the historian who pioneered research into the pre-1982 quarterback sack totals in the NFL, before the sack became an official league statistic. Turney started the project in 1993. He is a PFRA member and has served as a committee chair for the association’s All-Pros and Awards Committee since 2012. He is also the editor of the online blog Pro Football Journal (nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com) that began in 2014.

Farrar is the Nelson Ross Award winner. The Ross is awarded annually for achievement in pro football research. This year, Farrar won for his book, The Genius of Desperation: The Schematic Innovations that Made the Modern NFL (Triumph Books, 2018). Farrar is the national NFL writer for the USA Today Sports Media Group. He has written about football for Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, Football Outsiders, The Washington Post and other outlets over the last 15 years. The Genius of Desperation is his first book.

Tranter receives the PFRA’s Bob Carroll Memorial Writing Award. The Carroll is awarded to the best Coffin Corner article of the year as determined by the editors. The Coffin Corner is the PFRA’s magazine. Tranter’s award is for his article, “Well-Traveled: NFL Players That Have Played in the Most Pro Football Leagues,” (Volume 40, Number 6). The article researched and listed 20 players that played in five professional leagues or more with no- table names including Ben Agajanian, Coy Bacon, Michael Bishop and Fred Jackson that played in leagues like the AFL, the AAFC, the CFL, the USFL and the WFL. The award is sponsored by St. Johann Press and a $100 check is part of the Carroll as well as a one-year extension to his membership.

The Professional Football Researchers Association was founded in 1979 as a 501(c)(3) educational organization dedicated to research into and the preservation of the history of pro football. The membership includes many of the foremost football historians and authors. The PFRA publishes a magazine, The Coffin Corner, six times each year. More information is available at www.profootballresearchers.org.

[JeffreyMiller]

I'm proud to count John and Greg among my friends. They are not only great researchers and football fans, they are great guys! Congratulations to all three gentlemen for winning this year's awards!

[JWL]

Congratulations to all three fellows.

[sluggermatt15]

Congrats to Turney, Farrar, and Tranter on the award receipts!

[sheajets]

Congrats to the troika of award winners!