JOHN VALERINO
Honorary

John Valerino spent 20 of his 30 years at The Ledger covering Florida Southern athletics. He covered the Sunshine State Conference’s first-ever event as the Moccasins men’s basketball team played at Eckerd in 1976. He covered five of Florida Southern’s NCAA Division II Final Fours in men’s basketball, including the 1981 national championship. A 1974 graduate of Florida Southern, Valerino was editor of the FSC student newspaper his senior year. He began his career at The Ledger in 1974 and in 1978 was promoted to sports editor. In 1984, he was promoted to executive sports editor and in 1988, he was given additional duties as Sports Coordinator for the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (comprising 32 papers). In that position, he was responsible for coordinating group coverage among participating papers at the Olympics, Super Bowls, Final Fours, NBA Finals and World Series. Valerino received the FSC Communications Department’s Hal Waters Alumnus of the Year award in 2009 and earned the Dick Goleno Award in 2003 for outstanding contributions to local sports coverage. He has authored two books on baseball, both of which are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has also won numerous state and national writing awards for his coverage of the Olympics and FSC Basketball.