Herald-Leader’s Jon Hale named 2025 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year

Jon Hale, who has covered Kentucky football for the Herald-Leader since 2022, has been named the 2025 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.

Hale, from Langley, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in communication from the University of Kentucky. As a graduate student, he worked for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

After college, Hale covered the Wildcats at KyForward, The Cats’ Pause and the Louisville Courier Journal, where he first won NSMA Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year in 2021, before joining the Herald-Leader, establishing himself as an authority on the football beat.

“Jon sets the standard for sportswriting not just in Kentucky, but nationwide,” said Alex Valentine, interim executive editor at the Herald-Leader. “It’s wonderful to see that his peers rightly recognize him as a master of his craft.”

In 2022, Hale broke the story that UK Athletics investigated a hospital program that employed Wildcat football players and paid players for hours they hadn’t worked.

In 2025, Hale led the Herald-Leader’s coverage of Mark Stoops’ final season as Kentucky’s football coach and dove deep into larger athletic-department stories, including a look at UK’s 10-year contract extension with apparel provider Nike.

Hale and men’s basketball beat writer Ben Roberts were the first to report details of the university’s proposed multi-use facility to house a new basketball practice center, along with a UK HealthCare Sports Medicine facility.

A staffer from the Herald-Leader or Lexington Herald has won the NSMA Kentucky sportswriter award 27 times since its inception in 1959.

Previous honorees include Herald-Leader sports columnist Mark Story, a three-time winner, and former Herald-Leader staffers John Clay (seven times), Jennifer Smith and Jerry Tipton (twice).

This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 12:36 PM.