Morehouse College proudly celebrates Ron Thomas, Associate Professor of Journalism in Sports, Culture and Social Justice, on being named to the 2026 Class of the Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame, the highest honor of his 53-year career as a journalist. Thomas will be inducted on April 11, 2026, at North Carolina A&T State University, alongside Clifton Brown, Garry D. Howard and Rob Parker, joining a distinguished institution whose inaugural class included Michael Wilbon, Bill Rhoden and Claire Smith.
The Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame was established by Rob Parker, who envisioned a permanent home that would honor excellence in Black sports journalism, developed a national nomination process and convened a panel of 40 veteran journalists to select each class. Thomas and his fellow honorees are recognized not only for their talent and longevity, but for their willingness to confront racism in sports, elevate Black voices and expand how sports stories are told.
Thomas began his journalism career in 1973 at the Rochester Times-Union, covering high school sports in small upstate New York towns at a time when Black sportswriters were rare in American newsrooms. From the start, he saw sports as a powerful platform for examining racial inequality, an idea he articulated in his application to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and later brought to life through decades of reporting. Influenced by writers such as Jack Olsen and sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards, Thomas became known as a beat reporter who explored the social and racial context surrounding athletics while covering college and professional sports, including a 25-year focus on professional basketball. His career included interviews with some of the most influential figures in global sports, from Pelé and Martina Navratilova to Don “The Snake” Prudhomme. Thomas would go on to become the first NBA reporter for USA Today, the first chair of the NABJ Sports Task Force and the founding director of the journalism program at Morehouse College.
One of Thomas’s most enduring contributions is his book, They Cleared the Lane: The NBA’s Black Pioneers, published in 2002. The project grew out of deep archival research and interviews with early Black NBA players whose stories had largely been omitted from the league’s public history. First introduced through an 11-part series at the San Francisco Chronicle, the work preserved a critical chapter of sports and civil rights history and helped redefine how the NBA’s past is understood. That scholarship played a key role in Thomas joining the Morehouse College faculty in 2007, where he continues to mentor students and connect rigorous reporting with cultural analysis.
His induction into the Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame reflects a career built on curiosity, courage and community, and stands as a point of pride for Morehouse, its students and the broader legacy of Black journalism.
Tickets for the April 11 induction ceremony may be purchased here.
Congratulations to Professor Ron Thomas on this extraordinary and well-earned honor.