News Story

For immediate release:

Oct. 1, 2018

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana — The Media School’s 2018 Distinguished Alumni Awards recipients have excelled in the fields of news, television, sports, photography, education and media management. The school will honor their contributions to the news and media industries at a celebration Oct. 5 in Franklin Hall. 

The 2018 recipients are:

Diana Hadley, MA’80

Diana Hadley served as the director of the Indiana High School Press Association for 13 years after teaching English, speech and journalism for more than 30 years at Mooresville High School. After retiring from Mooresville, Hadley became a part-time instructor in Franklin College’s journalism school. Hadley started a First Amendment Day at the Statehouse each March — giving up to 400 high school students the opportunity to observe the legislative process — and coordinated the evaluation of hundreds of newspapers and yearbooks to create an annual statewide awards program. She taught at IU’s High School Journalism Institute for more than 30 summers.

Richard Horwitz, BA’63, MS’64

During his career with the Associated Press, photojournalist and photo editor Richard Horwitz worked in New York, Washington, Boston and Chicago, and served as the European photo network director in London. He began his career with the AP in 1964. While serving in editing roles, Horwitz continued to take photos. A shot of a 1976 shipwreck off the coast of Nantucket earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination. In the midst of it all, his passion for astronomy — the subject he originally wanted to study at IU — found its place. He’s traveled to photograph a total of 15 eclipses, most notably a 1972 eclipse off the African coast and a 1979 eclipse in Canada. Both were used on the front page of The New York Times.

Craig Klugman, BA’67

Craig Klugman served as editor of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette for 33 years. Under his leadership, the paper won numerous state and national awards. In 1998, Klugman helped produce and distribute a revolutionary seven-newspaper investigative series on abuses of Indiana’s public access laws. The series, called “The State of Secrecy,” ultimately resulted in the creation of the Indiana Public Access Counselor’s Office. Klugman was a longtime member of the advisory board for Indiana Alumni Magazine and currently serves as a member of the IU Student Media Publications Board.

John Rappaport, ’62

Since 1968, John Rappaport has brought laughter, fun and drama into the lives of the American public as a writer and producer of such all-time television classics as Laugh-In, All in the Family and M*A*S*H. Rappaport garnered eight primetime Emmy nominations, four People’s Choice Awards, five Writers Guild Best Script award nominations, three Humanitas Prizes and a Golden Globe. Rappaport also wrote and produced seven pilots for his company, Leeway Productions. He worked on films featuring screen legends Jane Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss and Burt Reynolds, and The Godfather producer Al Ruddy.

Ed Spray, BS’63, MA’69

Ed Spray led one of the most prolific and celebrated programming operations in commercial television. In addition to serving as president of Scripps Networks, he earned nearly all of the industry’s most iconic and coveted awards, including two national Emmys, two Peabodys, several DuPont Columbia Awards, Edward R. Murrow documentary awards and more than 75 local Emmys at CBS-owned station WBBM-TV. He joined E.W. Scripps Company in 1994 and became president of Scripps Networks upon its establishment in 1999. During his time at E.W. Scripps Company and Scripps Networks, he oversaw the launch of three networks — HGTV, DIY and the Cooking Channel — and the acquisition of three other networks.

Sage Steele, BS’95

Sage Steele is one of ESPN’s most popular and respected commentators, currently serving as the anchor for the 6 p.m. SportsCenter. She is lead host for SportsCenter on the Road, which includes on-site, day-long and pre-event coverage for the biggest sports events of the year, including the NBA Finals, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Masters, the College Football National Championship and many more. Beyond her work for ESPN, Steele has co-hosted ABC’s telecast of the Miss America pageant since 2016 and has been a featured guest host on ABC’s The View. She also hosted the Scripps National Spelling Bee from 2010-13.

The Media School’s alumni board selects the Distinguished Alumni Award recipients. To be eligible for the award, individuals must be alumni of The Media School, have worked in student media or have taken significant coursework in journalism or media during their time as a student at IU.