Red Smith Lecture

About the Lecture

During a career in journalism that spanned over a half-century, Red Smith became a prose stylist worth enduring attention. A 1927 Notre Dame graduate and a Pulitzer Prize winner for distinguished commentary, Smith died in 1982 and at the time was a sports columnist for The New York Times.

In 1983, Notre Dame inaugurated the Red Smith Lecture in Journalism to honor Smith and his literary achievement. The Smith Lectureship features visits to campus by prominent journalists and authors who discuss the craft of writing and the state of American journalism.

The Red Smith Lectureship is sponsored by John P. and Susan McMeel of Kansas City, Missouri, and Universal Uclick, formerly known as Universal Press Syndicate. John McMeel, a 1957 graduate of Notre Dame, is chairman of Andrews McMeel Universal, parent company of Universal Press Syndicate.

Past Lectures

  • James Reston, “Sports and Politics” (1983)
  • Murray Kempton, “Finding an Authentic Voice” (1984)
  • James J. Kilpatrick, “The Art of the Craft” (1985)
  • Charles Kuralt, “The View from the Road” (1986)
  • Art Buchwald, “While the Gipper Slept” (1988)
  • Robert Maynard, “Red Smith’s America and Mine” (1989)
  • Dave Kindred, “90 Feet Is Perfection” (1991)
  • Eugene L. Roberts Jr., “Writing for the Reader” (1994)
  • Georgie Anne Geyer, “Who Killed the Foreign Correspondent?” (1995)
  • David Remnick, “How Muhammad Ali Changed the Press” (1998)
  • Ted Koppel, “Journalism: It’s as Easy as ABC” (1999)
  • Jim Lehrer, “Returning to Our Roots” (2002)
  • Frank McCourt, “From Copybook to Computer: What You Write On and How You Do It” (2003)
  • Ken Auletta, “Whom Do Journalists Work For?” (2005)
  • Judy Woodruff, “Are Journalists Obsolete?” (2007)
  • Tim Russert, “When Politicians Meet the Press” (2008) (PDF of lecture)