Personal note

 Sam Smith - With five siblings, I have a lot of nephews and nieces, but there's only one other journalist in the family, my fine nephew Clemson Smith-Muniz, a University of Pennsylvania graduate born and raised in Puerto Rico who has just made it to the Daily Pennsylvanian Hall of Fame.

Here's what the Daily Pennsylvanian had to say about it:

Clemson is half Puerto Rican, half Philadelphian, an active University of Pennsylvania Latino alumnus and scholarship donor, Sprint football letterman, cancer survivor, sports writing, broadcasting and digital pioneer, “la voz de los Jets en español,” wildlife photographer, cyclist, wine lover, and always a willing and available mentor.

Starting with The DP in the fall of 1975, his career arc traces a trailblazing path from English to Spanish across multiple platforms and sports. He’s been a writer, editor, foreign correspondent, translator, radio and TV broadcaster, and founder of two production companies that opened doors for more than a dozen people into the world of broadcasting.

His highlights include being the first Spanish-language play-by-play announcer for the Jets, Knicks, St. John’s basketball, Army football, and MLB Network, and the first to broadcast on TV in Spanish for the Yankees, Mets, and Detroit Tigers. He recently completed his 16th season at MLB Network and is currently enjoying his 25th year with the Jets.

After serving as Co-Sports Editor on the 95th Board, Smith Muñiz began his professional career in 1980 on the Hartford Courant city desk. After two years of reporting news, he returned to sports to cover the New York Yankees, becoming one of a handful of minority sportswriters in the country. His beats included the Boston Celtics for the Courant; St. John’s, the Big East Conference, and the NCAA for the New York Daily News, and the NBA for the trade journal Sports, Inc.

While his Latino peers were making their marks in English, Smith Muñiz switched to Spanish in 1988, becoming a foreign correspondent based in New York, covering U.S. sports and the 1992 Dream Team and Olympic Games in Barcelona for El País, Spain’s largest newspaper. He then transitioned to ESPN International, today known as ESPN Deportes, broadcasting the 1993 World Series to Latin America.

His worldwide experience helped open doors in New York at a time no team broadcast in Spanish. Starting with los Knicks en español in 1994, Smith Muñiz carved a niche in Latino sports that continues today. He’s helped launch four different magazines, covered and broadcast Super Bowls, NBA Finals, and NCAA Final Fours, adapted scripts to Spanish for HBO Sports, helped start the digital platform La Vida Baseball, and consulted on the Smithsonian Museum’s ¡Pléibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues exhibition. In 2022, the Jets recognized him with the NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award....

In 2021, he became the second Latino to receive Penn’s highest alumni honor, the Alumni Award of Merit. Penn Alumni