Senior Wins $5,000 Murray Foundation Scholarship
Essay Ranked No. 1 in Overall Judging
Columbia, Mo. (Aug. 13, 2007) — Elizabeth Manring, a Missouri School of Journalism senior from Stockton, Mo., has been named a Murray Scholar by the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation. As a scholar, Manring receives a $5,000 scholarship and an expenses-paid trip to La Quinta, Calif., for the annual Murray Scholars Award Dinner.
Manring, a newspaper journalism major who is also involved in MU’s music program, wrote a 1,000-word essay that was named the best entry of this year’s competition. Seven college students from 29 participating universities were chosen as recipients of the one-time scholarship, which recognizes outstanding students pursuing careers in journalism, especially sportswriting. Manring is the third Missouri Journalism student to be named a Murray Scholar since the competition began in 1998. Katie Tiernan, BJ ’02, won in 2000, and Kyle Nagel, BJ ’03, won in 2001.
“Liz has one foot in music and one foot in journalism and she makes it work,” said Assistant Professor Greg Bowers, sports editor for the Columbia Missourian. “She’s a fearless reporter who also knows how to tell a good story. I’m very proud of her.”
Judges of this year’s scholarship contest included writers from some of the nation’s top publications, including The Oregonian; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; The Boston Globe; Los Angeles Times; Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger; Associated Press-Los Angeles; and the News-Journal in Mansfield, Ohio.
Jim Murray was a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times for more than 30 years. His many awards include a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary and the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, for which he was inducted into the writer’s wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in 1998, and his wife created the foundation in his honor.
Updated: April 20, 2020