Ed Bouchette named winner of McCann Award

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers for the newspaper for 30 years, has been selected as the 2014 Dick McCann Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA). He will be honored in Canton during the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival in August.

Bouchette, a longtime member of the Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee, is the second writer from a Pittsburgh newspaper to receive the McCann Award. Pat Livingston of the Pittsburgh Press  was honored in 1979.

The McCann Award is given by the PFWA 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). 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 1947-62 before taking the job with the Hall of Fame before its 1963 opening.

Bouchette began his career writing for the school newspaper as a freshman at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1973. He earned a business management degree, but he got journalism experience writing press releases and magazine articles for the university’s public relations office, covering sports while taking journalism and English electives.

He began covering Steelers home games in 1974 while working for the Indiana Gazette. He covered the Steelers at home, and at times on the road, for the Greensburg Tribune-Review, McKeesport Daily News, York Dispatch and the Doylestown Daily Intelligencer – all in Pennsylvania – before being hired at the Post-Gazette in 1983.

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His first beat at the Post-Gazette was the only season of the USFL’s Pittsburgh Maulers in 1984. He moved to the Steelers’ beat in 1985, and the 2014 season will be his 30th covering the club for the Post-Gazette. He has covered 30 Super Bowls during his career, five of them involving the Steelers.

Bouchette has authored two books on the Steelers: “The Pittsburgh Steelers” and “Dawn of a New Steel Age: Bill Cowher's Steelers Forge into the ‘90s,” and he has helped co-author others. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Sport, Pro Football Weekly and many more magazines and newspapers across the country.

The Lynn, Massachusetts native moved with his family at age 7 to Cornwall, Pennsylvania. Bouchette has three grown children – Scott, Danielle and Brittany – and two grandsons.

“Ed Bouchette personifies what a great beat reporter should be," said Post-Gazette Assistant Managing Editor for Sports Jerry Micco. "He's a pro’s pro and has the respect of his colleagues throughout the industry. This is a great honor that he has earned and it is well deserved. There is no beat in Pittsburgh bigger than the Steelers. And no reporter in Pittsburgh covers the Steelers better than Ed Bouchette.”

“I would like to congratulate Ed Bouchette on this prestigious award from the Pro Football Writers Association of America,” said Steelers President Art Rooney II. “Ed has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers for three decades and always has been a true professional in his reporting. Ed is certainly one of the most knowledgeable reporters covering pro football in America. This honor is much deserved.”

“My congratulations to Ed Bouchette on receiving this significant award from his peers with the Pro Football Writers Association of America,” said Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney. “Ed is one of the true professional sports writers in the NFL and he has always been fair in his writing and reporting. He is very worthy of receiving this award.”

Previous Winners

2013 - Dan Pompei, Chicago Tribune
2012 - Tom Kowalski, MLive.com
2011 - Bob McGinn, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
2010 - Peter Finney, New Orleans Times-Picayune
2009 - Peter King, Sports Illustrated
2008 - Len Pasquarelli, ESPN.com
2007 - John Clayton, ESPN/ESPN.com
2006 - John McClain, Houston Chronicle
2005 - Jerry Green, Detroit News
2004 - Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News
2003 - Joel Buchsbaum, Pro Football Weekly
2002 - Edwin Pope, Miami Herald
2001 - Len Shapiro, Washington Post
2000 - Tom McEwen, Tampa Tribune
1999 - Art Spander, Oakland Tribune
1998 - Dave Anderson, New York Times
1997 - Bob Roesler, New Orleans Times-Picayune
1996 - Paul Zimmerman, Sports Illustrated
1995 - Ray Didinger, Philadelphia Daily News
1994 - Don Pierson, Chicago Tribune
1993 - Ira Miller, San Francisco Chronicle
1992 - Frank Luksa, Dallas Morning News
1991 - Dick Connor, Denver Post
1990 - Will McDonough, Boston Globe
1989 - Vito Stellino, Baltimore Sun
1988 - Gordon Forbes, USA Today
1987 - Jerry Magee, San Diego Union
1986 - Bill Wallace, New York Times
1985 - Cooper Rollow - Chicago Tribune
1984 - Larry Felser, Buffalo News
1983 - Hugh Brown, Philadelphia Bulletin
1982 - Cameron Snyder, Baltimore Morning Sun
1981 - Norm Miller, New York Daily News
1980 - Chuck Heaton, Cleveland Plain Dealer
1979 - Pat Livingston, Pittsburgh Press
1978 - Murray Olderman, Newspaper Enterprise Assoc.
1977 - Art Daley, Green Bay Press-Gazette
1976 - Jack Hand, Associated Press
1975 - John Steadman, Baltimore News-American
1974 - Bob Oates, Los Angeles Times
1973 - Dave Brady, Washington Post
1972 - Lewis Atchison, Washington Star
1971 - Joe King, New York World-Telegram and Sun
1970 - Arthur Daley, New York Times
1969 - George Strickler, Chicago Tribune