News

Anthony Anderson, whose coverage of Indiana high school sports has dotted six different decades and who recently was named in the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association’s 2026 Hall of Fame class, is the recipient of the IHSAA’s 2025-26 Distinguished Media Service Award for District 1.

Anderson will be honored Tuesday, Feb. 24, when the Elkhart Lions host the Jimtown Jimmies in boys basketball at North Side Gym, a place he describes as his “favorite high school sports venue in the world.” IHSAA Commissioner Paul Neidig and Sports Information Director Jason Wille will make the presentation.

Anderson’s first sports reporting job came in 1979 while still in high school, writing part-time for the Lake County Star and Crown Point Register, a pair of weekly publications.

The cornerstone of Anderson’s full-time sports journalism career was more than 30 years at The Elkhart Truth from 1987 to 2017, including 15 years as assistant sports editor and another year as sports editor. He is renowned for his Twine Line basketball columns that ran through the duration of his Truth tenure.

A 1980 graduate of Crown Point High School and 1985 grad of Indiana University in Bloomington, Anderson worked on IU’s student newspaper, the IDS, for two years, including one season each on the women’s basketball, football and men’s basketball beats. As it so happens, he chronicled the reigning national champion Hoosiers’ only winless football team of the last 132 years in 1984.

Anderson names the 1990 state boys basketball championship between undefeated Concord and Damon Bailey-led Bedford North Lawrence in front of a world-record crowd of 41,046 at the Hoosier Dome as the most memorable sports event he’s ever covered but adds that there are way too many special ones to count.

Anderson staffed several-dozen State Finals across a variety of sports featuring Elkhart area teams and individuals. He extensively covered Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Benko — the world’s fastest swimmer at one time — throughout her Elkhart Central career and beyond. 
He says, however, that the most important stories he’s done are those related to life and death moments, as well as those that shed light on other hardships that individuals have faced and often conquered.

“You wish stories involving death didn’t exist at all, and they are difficult,” Anderson said, “but when they do happen, they are each the most impactful story of all to somebody, and often to many. I’ve tried to be sensitive to all involved, while also providing insight on what makes the loss so significant. While these events are always foremost sad, they also sometimes reveal the amazing power of the human spirit to overcome.”

Anderson’s deeper-dive pieces in this regard have included those about a basketball coach and his family who suffered the loss of two triplets shortly after birth, but with the third surviving and ultimately thriving; a column on a two-time state champion basketball player who was killed in an auto accident less than two years later while on his way to support his alma mater in a game; and a highly beloved football coach killed in an accident, with follow-up stories on his sons playing in the state championship less than two years later and on one of them coaching a state final many years after that.

Aside from his high school focus, Anderson’s conducted many exclusive, in-depth interviews with some of sports’ most compelling national figures, including Hank Aaron, Bob Knight, Muffet McGraw, Sugar Ray Leonard and John Wooden.

Anderson began his full-time journalism career in 1985 with two years at The Goshen News.

He followed his 30-plus years at The Elkhart Truth with seven years as Notre Dame women’s basketball beat reporter for the South Bend Tribune from 2017 to 2024, including ND’s 2018 national title season. He also covered high school sports on a freelance basis during that time, doing so for the Tribune, Truth and Warsaw Times-Union.

In the last year, Anderson has transitioned to full-time security for Penn-Harris-Madison Schools, while still freelancing for The Truth and Times-Union.

Anderson’s won several Hoosier State Press Association awards, including first place in sports column writing and sports feature reporting. He was presented the Virgil Sweet Service Award by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association in 2007 and the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Distinguished Service Award in 2018.

Anderson and wife Tamela, who retired last spring after 38 years as a South Bend educator, have six grown children — Nicole, Connor and Brady Anderson, and Zach, Simon and Quinn Williams — and a 15-month-old grandson, Beckett Anderson.

Tamela and Anthony, who married in 2003, have not only advanced education-based athletics via their life’s work, but also have been major suppliers of sorts. All six of their children competed in IHSAA varsity sports — four at Elkhart Central, one at South Bend Adams and one at LaVille.

This is the 39th year the IHSAA has recognized outstanding members of the Indiana news media from each of its three legislative districts for excellence in coverage of high school sports. District 1 covers 22 counties across northern Indiana.

Previous Award Winners

***

About the Indiana High School Athletic Association, Inc. (IHSAA)
The IHSAA is a voluntary, not-for-profit organization that is self-supporting without the use of tax monies. Since its founding in 1903, the Association’s mission has been to provide wholesome, educational athletics for the secondary schools of Indiana. Its 412-member high schools - public, institutional, parochial and private – pay no annual membership fee or incur entry fees to play in the Association’s tournaments. A state tournament series is conducted annually in 24 sports, 11 for girls, 11 for boys and two co-ed (unified flag football and track and field). A 19-person board of directors, elected by member school principals, governs the organization.