Rick Woodson Journalism Scholarship

Rick Woodson was a recognized sports writer, columnist, and newspaper editor who became an adjunct faculty member in journalism at SUNY Brockport for 11 years before he retired in 2012. When he began teaching at Brockport, Mr. Woodson had already received more than 20 first-place awards from the New York Press Association and the National Newspaper Association for writing and editing, including the weekly columns he wrote for the Rochester Business Journal.

A native of Texas who grew up in Louisiana, Mr. Woodson began working in sports reporting in the late 1960s after graduating from Northwestern (LA) State University. His career took him to the Longview (WA) Daily News, the Rochester Times-Union, and the Honolulu Advertiser. He returned to Rochester in the 1980s as a sports writer for the Gannett Rochester Newspapers. Mr. Woodson’s sports-writing career to him to innumerable Super Bowls, professional golf tournaments, the Olympic Games, and almost 100 Buffalo Bills games. His favorite columns are collected in his 2007 book, Words of Woodson.

In 1996, he began his weekly column with the Rochester Business Journal, where readers and his colleagues appreciated his unique perspective, sense of humor, and love of life. His Brockport students appreciated him as well, as evidenced by a column in The Stylus that marked his retirement.

Elizabeth Teall, his widow, and his children established the Rick Woodson Journalism Scholarship in his memory after he passed away in 2013.

Students qualified for the Rick Woodson Journalism Scholarship are undergraduate majors in the Department of Journalism, Broadcasting and Public Relations who have completed at least one year in the program with plans to return in the fall following selection and who demonstrate academic proficiency. Applicants must submit samples of their journalistic writing and provide an essay or answers related to Professor Woodson’s passion for First Amendment rights. Applicants also must demonstrate the potential for excellence in a career in journalism.