Former CA reporter Stukenborg gets Hall of Fame call
Phil Stukenborg always will remember the pure, unadulterated joy he witnessed at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium on Nov. 9, 1996.
In the midst of a 4-7 season, the Memphis football team had just pulled off a 21-17 upset of No. 6 Tennessee, led by quarterback Peyton Manning, and the blue-and-gray clad faithful came poring from the stands.
"Even though that was not a very good Memphis football team, it was just a catharsis of sorts for the fans," Stukenborg recalled earlier this week. "You could just see people running on the field like their life was complete. That was something I’d never seen. That felt like a New Year’s Eve when you were on the field trying to chase people down for interviews."
That, Stukenborg said, is the most memorable game he covered during a career at The Commercial Appeal that spanned 35 years. On Thursday night, his ability to chronicle these sorts of events will be honored when he is inducted into the Tennessee Sports Writers Hall of Fame during a ceremony at Cumberland University in Lebanon.
"Whenever you win these awards and they come from your peers, when it’s voted on by people who know you, who’ve read you, who you’ve been in press boxes with throughout the state," Stukenborg said, "that means a lot.”
The Memphis native and University of Memphis graduate began his career as public relations director for the Memphis Rogues of the North American Soccer League before joining the Memphis PressScimitar — the city's afternoon newspaper — in April 1982.
Stukenborg came to The CA in 1983 and was The CA's Memphis football beat writer from 1993 to 2014. He also served as the lead reporter for the Memphis area's annual PGA Tour and ATP events, in addition to stints as a high school sports reporter during the start of his career.
But it was his time around Memphis football that Stukenborg cherishes most, particularly the threeyear run (2003-05) when the Tigers made consecutive bowl games led by star running back DeAngelo Williams.
"To watch him break off a 60-yard run, to hear the press box gasp when he cut a corner," Stukenborg said, "you knew this was somebody who was special.”
He also can recall a hallway conversation with former Memphis State basketball coach Larry Finch, when Finch began talking about star Penny Hardaway and reminded Stukenborg, "This doesn’t come along often. This is a once-in-a-generation player."
Stukenborg brings it up today because he's currently working for the University of Memphis athletic department as an associate director/communications. His primary duties include serving as a liaison for the media covering the Tigers' men's basketball program, which is now coached by Hardaway.
“It’s kind of strange to be on this end of it," Stukenborg admitted. "I feel like I’m a reporter from 25 years ago when you had access to everything. I'm just not writing it."