On the back of a manila envelope, tiny scribbles map out Malcolm Moran's three-decade career as a sports journalist.

For someone who has covered 26 NCAA men's basketball Final Fours -- with press passes from Newsday, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and USA Today -- his life's work can be seen in pages upon pages of articles.

Now the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is asking Moran, Penn State's Knight Chair of the Center for Sports Journalism, to keep his spoken words to four minutes when he receives the 2007 Curt Gowdy Media Award tonight in Springfield, Mass.

Colleagues describe Moran as exceedingly modest, so, of course, it is the overwhelming number of people he wants to acknowledge that has Moran in a tizzy.

Boxes on the envelope are penned around segments of his life story to organize thoughts, but big arrows are drawn to move one moment in time from the top to the bottom.

Moran remembers starting up on the New Jersey Nets beat for the Times in 1979, and Sam Goldaper, the Times' Knicks beat writer, supported the 25-year-old who was a potential threat to his job.

"It would have been very easy for him to resent me," Moran said, "but he couldn't have done more for me if I was his son."

Goldaper didn't just give writing tips. He took Moran to breakfast and got him coffee and handshakes with NBA figureheads.

He recalls moments like Goldaper's argument at the Times' office with "somebody named [Tony] Kornheiser," who is now on ESPN's Monday Night Football. But he can't thank them all. Goldaper passed away in October 2005.

In 1992, Goldaper won the same Gowdy Award. But Moran can't put himself in his mentor's class, even though he wrote the front-page story in the Chicago Tribune when the Bulls clinched their sixth NBA title. Instead, Moran would rather talk about another humorous anecdote.

His 10-year-old twins are "still waiting to meet MJ" after being awoken by car horns during that night's championship celebration in the streets. They hope to meet him this weekend, as Bulls' coach Phil Jackson and North Carolina coach Roy Williams will enter the Hall.

Moran pointed out that he is not actually being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, only receiving an honor from the Hall.

Instead, it's Moran's knowledge of the game, his sharp perspective and the respect he earned from coaches and players that made him an elite basketball reporter. Moran's pre-game preparation was so thorough that it earned him the label of "anal retentive."

Sandy Padwe, Moran's editor at the Times and Newsday, knows when his writer isn't giving himself enough credit. He certainly did work for some papers with circulation in the millions, and he was definitely a "smooth writer."

"He did everything an editor could ask," Padwe said. "He always had good details. He always was able to convey the pageantry and the joy of an athletic event."

When Moran arrived at USA Today in 2000, college editor Tom O'Toole said he felt like the manager who would get to coach the ballplayer he always admired.

"There wasn't much managing with Malcolm. I never thought Malcolm worked for me," O'Toole said. "At best, we worked together. Sometimes, I felt like I worked for him."

O'Toole never worried about a 1,600-word Final Four cover story if Moran wrote it. The first story Moran did on a tight deadline left O'Toole and another editor in awe.

"Not many people can do that," O'Toole remembers his fellow editor saying, pointing out how fast the story was written. "It was a good read, too."

Moran's 1981 feature, "Picking up the Pieces at Indiana U.," appeared in the 1982 addition of "Best Sports Stories," but he credits Hoosier head coach Bob Knight for making it possible.

Moran rode in Knight's car to the hospital where paralyzed Indiana guard Landon Turner lay in bed after a tragic car accident.

Moran thanks Knight for introducing him to Turner as "Malcolm" and not simply as a reporter from the Times.

He gains a little more "street cred" with the Gowdy Award, he said. It's another important note on his manila envelope.

But it's the people behind the byline who make this award something more.

"You look back and remember the things they might have said on a bus going from a press hotel to a Final Four venue or exchanging information with you," Moran said. "Or just saying, 'hey, I really like that thing you did last week.' They didn't have to do that."