Skip to main content

Veteran Victoria Advocate sports writer honored with 2017 Fred Hartman Award

RUIDOSO, N.M. — Mike Forman, a veteran sportswriter for the Victoria Advocate, was honored with the Fred Hartman Excellence in Sports Writing Award on June 17 at the Texas Press Association Summer Leadership Retreat at Inn of the Mountain Gods.
Forman was presented with a plaque and a $1,000 cash award by outgoing Texas Press Association President Randy Keck, on behalf of the Hartman family, sponsor of the award.
“I am very honored to receive this award,” Forman said. “I want to thank the Texas Press Association. Winning awards is not an individual accomplishment. I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family and coworkers, especially sports editor Alexandria Alejandro.”
Forman graduated from Hillcrest High School in Dallas and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and a master’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Forman worked briefly in radio before starting at the Victoria Advocate in 1982. He has also written stories for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine and Friday Nite Football magazine.
During most of his 35 years at the Advocate, Forman has covered professional, college and high school sports while writing a weekly column.
Most recently, he has covered high school football, basketball, track and field, baseball and swimming, and the University of Houston-Victoria baseball team.
The award is named in honor of Fred Hartman, the late Texas sportswriter and newspaper owner. He began his newspaper career as a sportswriter and became editor and publisher of The Baytown Sun, working for Carmage Walls and Southern Newspapers.
Each year, the contest alternates between two fixed circulation breaks: Over 10,000 and under 10,000.
This year, the contest was open to journalists currently employed with a Texas newspaper with more than 10,000 in circulation.