Michelle Smith honored with Curt Gowdy Award

Springfield, of course, is home to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, where she’s seen both friends and interview subjects enshrined throughout the years. In fact, she even wrote ESPN reporter Michael Voepel’s biography when he received the award in 2022.

Still, the purpose of the call took her by surprise. Smith, who has worked in sports for more than 30 years, is the newest Curt Gowdy Media Award winner for print reporting.

“I know I’ve put in the time, but it’s an acknowledgement of the work, I hope, and that I really honored,” Smith said in reflection the following day. 

The Curt Gowdy Media Award, named for the former president of the Basketball Hall of Fame, is given out annually to reward outstanding contributions to basketball. And contribute she has, breaking barriers as the first women’s basketball columnist for both CBSSportsLine.com and ESPN.com among a litany of other accomplishments.

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In 1995, when Smith began her career in sports journalism, women’s basketball was treated more as an afterthought even though she was near the powerhouse Stanford program led by Tara VanDerveer. 

The only other woman on the Oakland Tribune sports staff had recently departed and the role of covering the Cardinal fell to her. 

Looking back, she says that assignment helped to set her path and find the passion that has driven her work for more than 30 years in the women’s sports space.

“Ultimately, it’s kind of the best thing that ever happened in my career,” Smith said.

From there, Smith rattled off a list of publications a young journalist could only dream of including the The Athletic, the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, WNBA.com, Pac-12.com and Bleacher Report. She’s also written for the Washington Post and SLAM Magazine and written children’s books on the WNBA for Scholastic. 

“I’m just thrilled for to see someone who you know isn’t the most maybe high profile self promoting person who’s just been deeply committed to what she does and seeing women’s basketball for as long as I’ve known her, which is a really long time,” longtime friend Ann Killion said. “It’s just great to see, to see that she’s being recognized for that. And, yeah, I couldn’t be happier. I mean, she’s just fantastic.”

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Killion, a sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, first crossed paths with Smith when the two were covering Stanford. Smith was one of the nation’s only beat reporters traveling with a collegiate women’s basketball team at the time. 

And the Chronicle, where Smith credits Glenn Schwarz with making women’s basketball coverage a priority, is still a leader in the industry with Marisa Ingemi on staff as a full-time women’s sports reporter.

“I had great opportunities because I had people who prioritized the work,” Smith said. “And then, it just always felt like my place in the world. Everybody’s got to know a lot about something, and this is my thing.”

She will also proudly tell you that she was the only reporter to cover every Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament from 2002 to 2024 in a few different capacities.

“Whatever we’re seeing going on in women’s sports right now, and women’s basketball specifically, is in large part due to people like Michelle, who were always there, were always advocating,” Killion said. 

And now, the game is giving back with Smith enshrined in the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024. She has also won the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Mel Greenberg Award in 2019 and College Sports Communicators Jake Wade Award in 2017.

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Although Smith hasn’t worked full-time as a journalist since 2016, she’s still active in sports, spending her days working in communications for a local college and writing here, as a senior contributor to The Next and The IX. 

The Bay Area native is also looking forward to women’s basketball’s western expansion with the Golden State Valkyries joining the WNBA in 2025 and Final Four in Phoenix, Ariz., the following spring. Finally, she says with a laugh, the sport is coming to her rather than her chasing it across the country.

Smith also has a book coming out about Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer. Watch for that this fall.

“The most inspiring part about my friend Michelle is that, after she has spent decades illuminating our understanding of women’s basketball with brilliance and empathy, she is as exacting with herself and her work as ever,” editor of The Next and The IX Howard Megdal said.

“She never relies on her unsurpassed history in this industry as a crutch to keep her from working harder than ever. We all benefit from this. The game benefits from this. I learn from her every single time I speak with her or read her. This honor belongs to her more than any other person I know. And generations to come will know more about this critical period in women’s basketball because of Michelle Smith.”