Judges' Comments
	"He is the clear winner with a powerful entry that shows story-telling prowess, mastery over details and excellent story selection. He knows his stuff so well he doesn’t have to impress you. Instead, he gets out of the way and hooks up readers with his subjects."
	The Fight of His Life

Tom Archdeacon has been blessed with an extraordinary gift as a storyteller. His writing speaks for itself.

Archdeacon’s interviewing skills are second to none. He has this knack for evoking trust and confidence from the people he interviews. And because of that trust, he manages to provide all-important details in his writing that few journalists can match. It makes for wonderful, thought-provoking journalism.

One of the Dayton Daily News columns in Archdeacon’s winning Best of Cox entry was about Greg Page. The heavyweight boxer had undergone surgery for removal of a blood clot after a controversial fight against Dale Crowe. Page received only $1,500 for the fight, staged in Erlanger, Ky. There was no oxygen at ringside and no ambulance or emergency medical crew outside. The ringside doctor twice had had his medical license suspended, Archdeacon wrote.

Another entered column placed Archdeacon squarely in the midst of a colorful sports setting, the jockeys’ room at the River Downs racetrack. It "has the bustling, behind-the-curtains frenzy of a multi-act Broadway show."

He is at home in any milieu and Archdeacon’s third column in the entry was written from the Bellbrook High School football stadium after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. The team struck a note of patriotism as it ran onto the field behind its captain, who was carrying the American flag. They burst through a big banner and a blanket of smoke, "thanks to parents with fire extinguishers," Archdeacon wrote. A photo of the moment appeared in Sports Illustrated.

Archdeacon’s Best of Cox first place is his fourth. He won the Sports writing on deadline category in 1995 and has been the Sports column winner three times, in 1995, 2001 and 2002.

A native of Ottoville, Ohio, Archdeacon graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in English in 1972.