IBCA E-Newsletter

2020 Virgil Sweet Distinguished Service Awards

Each year the IBCA Board of Directors selects individuals from each of the three IBCA Districts to receive the Virgil Sweet Distinguished Service Award. The award, named in honor of the former Executive Director of the IBCA, is given to individuals who have provided meritorious service in the promotion of basketball in the state of Indiana.

The winners for 2020 are a trio of sportswriters – Jim Peters of the Michigan City News-Dispatch and LaPorte County Herald-Argus, Mike Carmin of the Lafayette Journal & Courier and Gordon Engelhardt of the Evansville Courier & Press.

District 1

Jim Peters

Jim Peters has had a successful writing career in northwest Indiana covering 35 years for a several newspapers, most recently the Michigan City News-Dispatch and LaPorte County Herald-Argus.

He has won a variety of awards over the years, including the The Griddy’s Media Award in 2016, Best Sports Event Coverage in the 2016 Hoosier State Press Association contest and the Media Award from the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association on multiple occasions. Most recently, Peters was recognized as the Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year by the Indiana Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association in 2017.

Peters is a 1981 graduate of Andrean High School, where he played golf and was in the same graduating class as Dan Dakich. He went on to Purdue University, where he covered men’s basketball, football, baseball and other sports for the Purdue Exponent prior to graduation in 1985. He also did play-by-play of men’s basketball for a student radio station that served the Purdue residence halls.

He began his professional writing career in 1985, working 13 years for The Herald News Group and producing text for the Merrillville Herald, the Portage Journal-Press, the Hobart Gazette, the Lake Station Herald and later the Portage Chronicle. He joined The Times of Northwest Indiana in 1998, covering sports in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties for 20 years. In 2018, he moved to a new spot and now works for the Michigan City News-Dispatch and LaPorte County Herald-Argus.

Over the years, Peters has covered State Finals events in 17 of the 20 sports offered by the IHSAA. He also has been a contributing writer for the Chesterton Tribune and to Hoosier Basketball Magazine. He also participated in recreational basketball and softball as a younger adult and coached youth basketball and youth baseball in Portage from 1997 through 2007.

Peters has been married to his wife, Anita, for 31 years. The couple has three adult children – Carolyn, CJ and Cameron.

District 2

Mike Carmin

Mike Carmin has been an award-winning writer for the Lafayette Journal & Courier for parts of five decades – the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and now into the 2020s.

Carmin began his career more than 30 years ago as a freelance reporter covering high school sports and Purdue women’s basketball for the Journal & Courier, which led him to follow the Boilermakers on their way to the national championship in 1999. His coverage of that team won a national award from Gannett.

For 10 of the past 11 seasons, he also has been the primary reporter for Purdue football program along with his duties covering the women’s basketball program and high school sports. In the 2019-2020 season, Carmin completed his first year covering the Purdue’s men’s basketball program.

Carmin is 1980 graduate of Eastbrook High School, where he competed in basketball, football and baseball. He went on to Franklin College, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1985. He worked in radio prior to starting his writing career, initially as a freelance reporter in 1989.

Carmin received the Mel Greenberg Media Award from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association in 2012. He also was honored as the Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year by the Indiana Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association in 2019.

Carmin and his wife, Kathy, live in Lafayette.

District 3

Gordon Engelhardt

Gordon Engelhardt has received numerous awards in his career as a sports writer that has touched a part of six decades, the last 36 years with the Evansville Sunday Courier & Press, Evansville Courier or Evanville Courier & Press.

From the late 1970s and now into the 2020s, Engelhardt has covered everything from the NCAA Division I men’s basketball Final Four to several NCAA Division II men’s and women’s Elite Eights to the Indianapolis 500 to hydroplane racing to multiple Indiana high school state championship events in basketball and multiple other sports.

Engelhardt is a 1975 graduate of Lincoln Community High School in Lincoln, Ill., where he played three years of baseball and one year of football. He went on to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1979. After college, he was a pitcher for three semi-pro baseball teams in Illinois.

He began his writing career in May 1979 with the Watseka (Ill.) Times-Republic. He moved to the Ottawa (Ill.) Daily Times in January 1980 for more than four years, then accepted a position with the Evansville Sunday Courier & Press in December 1984. That paper was folded into the Evansville Courier in October 1986, and it later became the Evansville Courier & Press.

Engelhardt has won awards for his reporting on basketball and powerboat racing. Among his most recent awards were second place for best columnist in the 2013 Associated Press state contest and third place for best commentary and third place for best event coverage in the 2016 Hoosier State Press Association contest. He also was named Sportswriter of the Year in 2008 by the American Boat Racing Association and Reporter of the Year in 1990 by the Unlimited Racing Commission.

More recently, Engelhardt was inducted into the Greater Evansville Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 and into the Indiana Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 2019.

Engelhardt lives in Newburgh with his wife of 17 years, Julie. His stepsons Michael and Eric Rosenbaum both are Castle High School graduates and both live in Los Angeles.