Yesterday, both Penn State and the College of Communications took a step toward the future of sports journalism.

During a press conference held at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, the College of Communications Center for Sports Journalism received a $1.5 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The Knight Foundation also granted the College of Communications $225,000 to continue and establish an endowment for the Knight Diversity Scholars Program.

University President Graham Spanier said in a press release, "This gift from the Knight Foundation is a tremendous opportunity to improve teaching, conduct research and clarify the role of journalists and sports in our society."

The Knight Foundation, founded in 1950, works with universities to improve both the teaching and practice of journalism. It is the leading fundraiser of journalism in the United States and overseas, giving away approximately $90 million a year.

Beginning in 1990, the foundation instituted a Knight Chair of Journalism, which gives a distinguished university $1.5 million to hire a new faculty member to head this chair. Since then, 18 chairs have been awarded, making Penn State's sports and society chair the 19th.

Alberto Ibargüen, the president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, was at the press conference to personally congratulate Spanier and the Dean of the College of Communications Doug Anderson.

Anderson was ecstatic about the grant.

"It's not very often that we have a $1,720,000 payday in the College of Communications," he said.

Ibargüen, in a press release, stated, "We hope this high-profile teaching post will spur the interest in sports' larger role in society. And with its strong intercollegiate athletics values, its solid journalism leadership and talented sports journalism faculty, Penn State is a truly appropriate home for this effort."

The grant was the largest ever received by the College of Communications from a foundation.

Ibargüen said that Penn State seemed to be an obvious choice for the endowment, citing the university's "committed leadership" in both the President and Dean of Communications, its "excellent school of communications" and "focus on the athlete" put it a step above the rest.

Penn State's College of Communications is also the only program in the country to finish four consecutive years in the national top-10 in both intercollegiate writing and broadcast news in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program.

Professor John Curley and Anderson founded the Center for Sports Journalism in the fall of 2003. Since then, the Center has grown quickly, with 170 students enrolled and 23 people on the Board of Visitors.

The Center explores issues and trends in journalism with four full-semester core courses, ranging from sports writing to sports, media and society.

"The Center has reached the point that it needs a high-profile director who can devote his or her energy to pushing the program forward," Anderson said. The director hired will work with students and faculty throughout the College of Communications, The Daily Collegian and ComRadio.

A national search for the Knight Chair will begin next week.

"The Knight Chair will focus on the need to pursue rational reform in big-time intercollegiate athletics and on the need for media to improve their coverage of the increasingly complex aspects of sports, particularly those that extend beyond the playing fields and courts." Anderson said.