Anthony Anderson to Receive IHSAA Distinguished Media Award at Elkhart vs Jimtown

Anthony Anderson will be honored Feb. 24 at North Side Gym in Elkhart with the IHSAA’s 2025-26 Distinguished Media Service Award for District 1 during the Elkhart Lions boys basketball game against the Jimtown Jimmies. The IHSAA announced Feb. 19 that Commissioner Paul Neidig and Sports Information Director Jason Wille will present the award to the longtime Indiana high school sports journalist whose coverage, the release says, "has dotted six different decades."

Anderson’s career milestones include recent election to the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association’s 2026 Hall of Fame class and multiple Hoosier State Press Association awards, including first place in sports column writing and first place in sports feature reporting, according to the IHSAA release. He also received the Virgil Sweet Service Award from the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association in 2007 and the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Distinguished Service Award in 2018.

The IHSAA release notes that Anderson transitioned within the last year to full-time security work for Penn-Harris-Madison Schools while continuing to freelance for The Truth and Times-Union. Those dual roles followed a reporting life that the association framed as spanning six decades of coverage of local high school athletics.

Family and local ties figure heavily in Anderson’s profile. He and his wife Tamela, married in 2003, have six grown children, Nicole Anderson, Connor Anderson, Brady Anderson, and Zach, Simon and Quinn Williams, and a 15-month-old grandson named Beckett Anderson. The release adds that all six children competed in IHSAA varsity sports, with four of them competing at Elkhart Central, one at South Bend Adams and one at LaVille, and that Tamela retired "last spring" after 38 years as a South Bend educator.

The Distinguished Media Service Award is presented annually to one media member in each of the IHSAA’s three legislative districts; this year marks the association’s 39th year of that recognition. District 1 covers 22 counties across northern Indiana. Past Distinguished Media Service Award winners listed in the regional excerpt include Taylor, Graham, Madison Courier, 1987-88, Dist. 4; Teverbaugh, Rick, Anderson Herald-Bulletin, 2012-13, Dist. 2; Throckmorton, Ted, WAVG, Jeffersonville, 2000-01, Dist. 5; Tsoutsouris, Val, Rochester Sentinel, 2017-18, Dist. 1; Turner, Vince, WTRC, Elkhart, 1997-98, Dist. 2; Vanderwielen, Rick, HomeTown Sports Indiana / IHSAA Champions Network, 2016-17, Dist. 2; Washburn, Jeff, Lafayette Journal & Courier, 1988-89, Dist. 1; Weaver, Rob, WPGW AM FM, Portland, 2005-06, Dist. 2; Weller, Jeff, WLBC, Muncie, 1993-94, Dist. 4; Welter, Harold, WKVI, Knox, 1989-90, Dist. 1; Wilkerson, Lance, WEHT-TV, Evansville, 2005-06, Dist. 3; and Young, Dave, WZDM FM, Vincennes, 2017-18, Dist. 3.

The IHSAA release quotes Anderson describing North Side Gym as his "favorite high school sports venue in the world," underscoring the local resonance of an award that will be presented during the Elkhart vs Jimtown matchup. The association did not list a game time or ticketing details in the announcement, but it did confirm that Paul Neidig and Jason Wille will make the presentation when the Lions host the Jimmies on Tuesday, Feb. 24.