Journal’s Sickenger honored by NSMA
He is named NM’s Sportswriter of 2020
Albuquerque Journal sportswriter Ken Sickenger was honored last week as the National Sports Media Association’s New Mexico Sportswriter of the Year for 2020. The NSMA presents annual state and national awards to sportswriters and sportscasters to “recognize and honor excellence in the industry.” State winners are elected by voting media members within each of the organization’s 49 represented states and the District of Columbia.
It is the first NSMA award for Sickenger, who has also won Top of the Rockies and New Mexico Press Association sportswriting awards during his Journal tenure.
Sickenger is an Albuquerque native and graduate of Del Norte High School and the University of New Mexico. He has worked as a sportswriter for 32 years, 28 of them in New Mexico.
Sickenger joined the Journal full time in 1995, covering Northern New Mexico sports at the newspaper’s Santa Fe bureau. He moved to Albuquerque in 1999 and spent eight years coordinating the Journal’s prep sports coverage.
Over the last 15 years, Sickenger has covered collegiate, professional and high school sports, including UNM women’s basketball, baseball and volleyball, New Mexico State football, Albuquerque Isotopes baseball and New Mexico United soccer.
KRQE’s Van Tate was honored as NSMA New Mexico Sportscaster of the Year for 2020. NBC’s Mike Emrick and The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach were named as national sportscaster and sportswriter of the year, respectively.
The National Sports Media Association’s annual awards weekend is scheduled to be held in June in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.