KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A legendary sports journalist was posthumously honored during the Kansas City Sports Awards Thursday.
Grant Wahl was named the Spire Community Champion.
The honor is given to an individual who has made a longstanding commitment and bettered Kansas City through sports.
As an internationally acclaimed sports journalist, Wahl certainly fit that description.
Members of Wahl’s family attended the banquet. His brother Eric accepted the award in his honor.
“I love this city, so this means a great deal to us. I know Grant would have been probably a little embarrassed and would have laughed about it, but would’ve really felt the love and the honor. We’re proud to represent him tonight,” Eric Wahl said.
Wahl died in December while covering the World Cup in Qatar. His family later said he died of a ruptured heart vessel brought on by an undetected aneurysm.
He attended Shawnee Mission East High School before going to Princeton. Wahl then started out his career at the Miami Herald before joining Sports Illustrated in 1996. He also worked for CBS Sports and FOX Sports.
Throughout his career, he covered college basketball along with soccer, winning four Magazine Story of the Year awards by the U.S. Writers Basketball Association.
He also covered 12 NCAA men’s Tournaments, eight FIFA men’s World Cups and four FIFA women’s World Cups. Wahl also has numerous cover stories on a plethora of athletes, including LeBron James’ first Sports Illustrated cover back in 2002.
He has recieve a number of honors and awards since his death, including being posthumously inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Colin Jose Media Award.
The award honors journalists whose careers have made significant long-term contributions to soccer in the United States, according to the NSHOF website.