Articles

 

 

Contact – Tim Stried, OHSAA Director of Media Relations, [email protected]

 

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Prep Sports Media Association has announced the 2026 induction class into the OPSMA Hall of Fame, which includes Denny McPherson from the Marion Star, Dan Messerschmidt from the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum and Crawford County Now, and Tom Puskar from the Ashland Times-Gazette and Mansfield News Journal.

 

The OPSMA Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place during the OHSAA boys basketball state finals at the University of Dayton Arena on Saturday, March 21. The three honorees will join 78 sportswriting greats previously enshrined in the OPSMA Hall of Fame.

 

Biographical information for all three inductees is below. The OPSMA inducted its first Hall of Fame class in 1983. The complete list is posted at: https://www.ohsaa.org/news/OPSWA/HOF

 

The OPSMA was created in 1972 to support, promote and recognize the coverage of high school sports across Ohio. More information is available at: https://www.ohsaa.org/news/OPSWA

 

Denny McPherson has been involved with high school and youth sports in Marion County for 46 years and has covered everything from state championships to youth baseball, while also becoming one of the state’s leading bowling writers along the way.

 

Denny got his start in sportswriting at The Lantern at The Ohio State University and graduated in 1979. He then returned to his home county and spent 36 years as a sportswriter for the Marion Star, where he covered Marion County’s six high schools and wrote a golf and bowling weekly column. He retired from the Star in 2015, but has remained active keeping the official basketball scorebook at his alma mater, Elgin High School.

 

Among many awards during his career, Denny was honored with the OHSAA’s Central District Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Media Service Award and the Marion County Athletic Boosters Association Service Award.

 

Bowling has also been a big part of Denny’s career. Denny was inducted into the Marion Bowling Council Hall of Fame for his newspaper coverage of bowling in the Marion area and received the Marion County Bowling Association Francis Warwick Memorial Award. Denny also received the Marion County International Raceway Service Award and the Buckeye American Legion Baseball Champions of Character Award.

 

Dan Messerschmidt started his sportswriting career in the fall of 1987 as a fill-in stringer for the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum and is still writing in Crawford County 39 years later. He joined the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association (now Sports Media) in the early-to-mid-90s and eventually served as president of the association.

 

Dan covered sports for the Telegraph-Forum for 30 years while also working in purchasing for a local manufacturer. In 2017, he transitioned to the North Central Ohio Media group (Saga Communications), which encompasses WQEL and WBCO radio stations and Crawford County Now online. As the Sports Director, he is mostly responsible for online content and compiles the schedules for broadcasts of football, basketball, and baseball games.

 

Dan won several awards from the OPSMA and was also named the Associated Press Columnist of the Year. However, Dan says that his driving force was being allowed to cover high school sports for a small community. When Dan began, he looked at the old-timers of that era in awe — names like Randy Heath, Tom Metters, Odie O’Donnell, Hobart Wilson, Don Hohler, Dick Zunt — never imaging he would be mentioned among them.

 

Tom Puskar is an award-winning photojournalist with nearly 40 years of experience capturing the definitive moments of North Central Ohio sports. His career began at Mount Union College through an internship with The Alliance Review. This was followed by a distinguished 33-year tenure at the Ashland Times-Gazette, including 26 years as Chief Photographer. A forward-thinking leader in the field, Tom spearheaded the technological transition from film to digital photography for both the Ashland Times-Gazette and all of Dix Communications newspapers.

 

Nationally, Tom has been a freelance photographer for the Associated Press since 1990. His portfolio includes coverage of NFL and MLB games, and he has been a consistent presence at the Little League World Series, documenting the tournament annually from 2003 through 2024.

 

Tom photographed the OHSAA softball state tournament at Brookside Park in Ashland for 17 years. He also photographed the OHSAA wrestling state tournament for 20 plus years both for the Ashland Times-Gazette and their sister Dix Communications publications. He is a recipient of numerous APME awards for sports photography. Since leaving the Ashland Times-Gazette in 2023 he continues to contribute his expertise as a freelancer for the Mansfield News Journal.

 

Tom and his wife of 15 years, Heather Beasley, recently moved into their newly built dream home in Richland County.