Dale Bye worked to bring recognition to Black pioneer journalist Sam Lacy

Former Kansas City Star Sports Editor Dale Bye accomplished many feats during his career in journalism.

He started as a reporter in Mason City, Iowa, before holding numerous editor roles in places like  Huntsville, Alabama and St. Louis, Missouri. His work as an editor led him to become president of the Associated Press Sports Editors in 1994.

But perhaps his biggest contribution was advocating for more diversity in his own newsrooms, which was heavily influenced by his admiration for Sam Lacy.

A longtime sports journalist, Lacy was integral in pushing for sports to be integrated during a time when athletics segregated players by skin color. His work spanned decades, and he was eventually awarded the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in 1997 by the Baseball  Writers’ Association of America for “meritorious contributions to baseball writing.”

That award placed Lacy in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s writers and broadcasters wing in 1998, the same year that Lacy was bestowed the Red Smith Award, APSE’s highest honor.

Lacy worked for the Washington Tribune, Chicago Defender and Baltimore Afro-American, and was known for his reporting and his commentary.

For a long time, Lacy’s work went unawarded — and his impact unnoticed — outside of the Black press.

“It was sort of to my chagrin that Sam's work was not covered to the best of my knowledge on any wire service,” Bye said.

Bye might not have been the person to nominate Lacy for the Red Smith Award, but he has  always championed Lacy’s work. He took it upon himself to have some of Lacy’s stories in his sports section after learning about him.

Bye said he never interacted with Lacy personally, but does remember sitting in on some of his panels during a National Association of Black Journalists convention in Baltimore in 1985.

It was a historic milestone when Lacy won the Red Smith Award in 1998. He was the first African American to win the award since its creation in 1981.

Although Bye felt happy that Lacy won in 1998, he was disappointed that Lacy wasn’t recognized earlier.

“I was … disappointed because APSE should have been the leader in this,” Bye said. “They should have recognized that the Black press was producing good journalists, too.”

Bye admitted that there will probably never be another Sam Lacy, but said young journalists can learn from the habits Lacy displayed during his career.

“I think that it's easy to look at a lot of the stuff that Sam did as far as his commentary, but he was also a good news reporter,” Bye said. “I think that that's where everything starts. Being able to report a story out and say, ‘I'm gonna do that.’ Sam had an eye for detail when it came to straight news reporting. I think that’s the biggest thing that anyone who wants to be in sports media should take away.”

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