Montclair State University professor Kelly Whiteside was honored with the 2025 Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association of America – the highest recognition possible for her decades of covering college football. This honor makes her the first female inductee of the Football Writers Association of America Hall of Fame.
Whiteside speaks at the FWAA Past Presidents Dinner.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Macatee
Whiteside always had a love for college football, having grown up watching the big games with her family. She described what she loves so much about college football: the tradition, pageantry, and spectacle.
“The marching bands, the 100,000 people in the arena, it’s really larger than life, and a lot of these places where I would cover sports,” Whiteside said. “So it’s a little bit different from where we are in New York, New Jersey, which is primarily pro-sport driven. In various parts of the country, whether it’s the south or the Midwest, you know, college football is king.”
Whiteside began her career at Newsday and Sports Illustrated before starting at USA Today. There, she traveled the country covering everything from college football to national sports, even covering several Olympic Games and FIFA World Cups.
In 2002, she became the first female president of the Football Writers Association of America.
Steve Richardson, the Executive Director of the Football Writers of America, highlighted the importance of this achievement.
“Our organization started in 1941, but there weren’t as many women in sports writing until the seventies and early nineties,” Richardson said. “Many of them that were very good often got snatched and went into something else, but [Whiteside] was a trailblazer,” said Richardson. “She distinguished herself, as a college writer in a sport dominated by male reporters, but nevertheless, she worked her way up and then became our president.”
Whiteside smiles at the FWAA award dinner.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Macatee
In 2014, Whiteside made the switch to teaching after 14 long years of back-and-forth reporting. She had previously worked as an adjunct professor at Columbia and Rutgers University before coming to Montclair State University.
Currently, she teaches Sports Media in Society and Cross-Platform Sports Writing, and serves as a member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
Sports communication professor Kelly Whiteside in her office. Kaitlin Swift | The Montclarion Photo credit: Kaitlin Swift
Dr. Keith Strudler, the Dean of the School of Communication and Media, emphasized Whiteside’s credibility as both a writer and professor.
“We’re all really proud of [Whiteside]. She is incredibly hardworking. She really cares about the students. She really cares about her field. She’s pioneering in her field,” said Strudler. “[The industry is] much more open to female sports writers, but it wasn’t always, and I think she always pushed through glass ceilings and roadblocks.”
Strudler also expressed the importance of the McGrane Award to Montclair State’s Sports Communication program.
“That’s been one of our fastest-growing programs and I think it does serve as a reminder that the people that we have who are teaching in those fields have great professional experience in many cases and are highly recognized by the industry,” Strudler said. “I think for students who are looking at our program, I think it should be a reminder of the kinds of expertise that they’ll be able to work with when they’re here.”
Whiteside’s mentorship and expertise aided Montclair State alum Corey Annan, a member of the class of 2022, during his time as an undergraduate as his adviser and professor. Annan now works as a sports writer for NJ.com.
“She was a very influential person from my journalism career, and someone who I kind of leaned on, especially in the latter half of my college career,” said Annan. “[In terms of] growing as a journalist, landing that first job, she was really huge for that.”
Whiteside encouraged aspiring sports journalists to be persistent and perseverant.
“Do not lose your voice,” Whiteside said. “Just be passionate about writing, about storytelling. The industry is different from when I broke into it, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t jobs. If you want to cover sports for a living, you can definitely find opportunities, whether it’s going into social media storytelling, podcasting, broadcasting, television, or what I did, it was the print now digital. There are opportunities there because sports are such a big part of our society. If this is something that you want to do, definitely pursue it. It’s a lot of hard work, there’s a lot of sacrifice, but it’s totally worth it.”
