Pioneering sports journalist Claire Smith, who broke barriers by becoming the first female beat writer in Major League Baseball and the first woman to receive the prestigious J.G. Taylor Spink Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, will receive the President’s Award at the 79th Gold Key Dinner, presented by the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance. Smith worked for the Hartford Courant as beat writer for the New York Yankees from 1983 to 1987. During the 1984 National

Our condolences to the family and friends of the late John Fontana of Southington who has passed away. He did so much for so many high school athletes and coaches over the years. He received a Gold Key in 1989 from the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance. Fontana, a member of one of the most highly-regarded families in Connecticut sports history and one of the country's all-time winningest baseball coaches, died Monday night (October 21) after being felled by a stroke Sunday

SOUTHINGTON, Conn., Oct. 19, 2019 — Five championship coaches will be honored next spring with one of the most prestigious awards in Connecticut sports, as 2020 recipients of the Gold Key Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance (CSWA). The honorees are Cookie Bromage (Enfield field hockey), Joe Grippo (Morgan girls volleyball and girls basketball), Lou Milardo (Hale-Ray softball), Ricky Shook (Danbury wrestling) and Angela Tammaro (Greenwich Academy field hockey a