Fred Mitchell is a former award-winning sportswriter and columnist (1974-2015) for the Chicago Tribune.
Mitchell – who grew up in Gary, Indiana – was hired as the Chicago Tribune’s first Black sportswriter in 1974 and became the beat writer, covering the Chicago Bulls, Cubs and Bears. He is the only writer to cover those pro teams as a main beat assignment in the history of the newspaper.
Mitchell became a columnist in the last 20 years of his career and earned the Ring Lardner Award for outstanding sports journalism in 2015.
He’s the author of 12 books – including with Pro Football Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Richard Dent, MLB Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg and the late Earl Woods, father of PGA champion Tiger Woods.
He is also the namesake for the Fred Mitchell Award, which annually goes to the top placekicker among the 750 non-FBS college in America. In college, Mitchell set the NCAA record for the most career points scored by kicking while playing for small-college powerhouse Wittenberg University of Springfield, Ohio from 1965 to 1968. In 1995, Mitchell was inducted into the Wittenberg Hall of Honor.
In 2023, Mitchell was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame and Indiana Football Hall of Fame.