After 11 years in sports reporting, Indianapolis Star Sportswriter Dana Benbow not only took home an award but made history.
The National Sports Media Association, founded in 1959, announced Benbow as the recipient of the Indiana Sportswriter of the Year award in January for her sportswriting at the IndyStar, making her the first woman to win the award.
According to the IndyStar, Benbow began at the paper in 1999 covering commercial real estate development, retail and served as a fitness writer. However, for Benbow, her love for storytelling began far before she wanted to pursue journalism. When she was three years old, Benbow rewrote Willie Nelson’s, “On the Road Again,” after receiving a Fisher Price record player — sparking a lifelong love for writing. When she reached third grade, Benbow said she won a national contest for her work.
“I wrote about a jelly bean sitting on President Ronald Reagan’s desk because he loved jelly beans,” Benbow said. “I pretended like I was one of those jelly beans and wrote the story.”
Benbow was raised as a big sports fan in Greenfield, Indiana, bonding with her father through watching the Yankees and the Celtics. She and her best friend, Associate Provost at the University of Indianapolis Rebecca Gilliland, made audio tapes pretending to be sports announcers.
“We rip on the LA Lakers and brag about the Celtics,” Benbow said. “I mean, between writing and sports, they just kind of merged. And when I started at Butler, I didn’t know then that I wanted to go into journalism.”
According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, men accounted for 83% of surveyed journalists who cover sports. Behind the scenes, Benbow said there are times when she is treated differently because of her gender.
“It was the Big Ten men’s championships in Indy, and so we were all in the press row,” Benbow said. “It was like all guys, and then after you cover the game, they send you all back to do a press conference with the players and the coaches. And so I stood up and was walking back, and some other reporter that I never met in my life just walked up and said, ‘So what kind of feature fluff piece are you writing today?’ … I was like, ‘I’m here covering the game, you know, I understand fouls and turnovers and baskets. It’s not that difficult.’”
Benbow said winning Sportswriter of the Year is in her top three greatest accomplishments as a journalist. For her, she thinks about inspiring other women who aspire to be in the same male-dominated spaces she was in without second-guessing themselves.
“It [the award] had been given since 1959 and every single winner had been a man,” Benbow said. “That’s so long to not have one woman win that award. So, it just meant a lot to me to think maybe some little girl might be like, ‘You can be a sportswriter as a woman, and you can be really good at it; you can beat the men.’”
Benbow currently teaches as an adjunct professor of communication at UIndy, teaching COMM 326 Media Writing. Benbow said her ultimate goal is to teach her students how to write a good article and to shape young minds; however, she said she is learning from her students as well. Her biggest challenge — making sure her quizzes are not too easy.
“A challenge has been me learning that I’m in charge and not, like, being too easy,” Benbow said.
When she is not writing stories or on the court, Benbow said she likes to unwind with her favorite snack, croutons, with her two pet goats: Herman and Gus the Glorious Goat.
“It’s 2025,” Benbow said. “We shouldn’t even be thinking about whether a woman can write about sports or politics.”
