Former Tuscaloosa News writer Cecil Hurt named to Huntsville Athletic Hall of Fame

Cecil Hurt, a former writer for the Tuscaloosa News, will have another honor coming his way in April 2024. He will be inducted into the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. Eleven others will join Hurt, including a former Alabama basketball player.

“The late Cecil Hurt, former sports editor and columnist of The Tuscaloosa News, has been posthumously selected for the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame, along with former Alabama basketball star Bobby Lee Hurt and 10 others,” Chase Goodbred of The Tuscaloosa News said. “The inductees will be honored at a banquet at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center on April 14, 2025.”

Hurt was a legend on the Alabama beat, working for The Tuscaloosa News for nearly four decades. This is not the first Hall of Fame Hurt has been inducted into, earning a spot in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame’s Mel Allen Media Award in 2019. Multiple other awards were won by Hurt throughout his career.

Back in November 2021, Hurt died to due complications with pneumonia. He was just 61 years old. Following his passing, Hurt was honored by then-Alabama head coach Nick Saban, having nothing but high regard for the sports writer.

“Cecil Hurt was a good friend and one of the best sports writers I have ever had the privilege of working with, not just at Alabama, but at all of our coaching stops,” Saban said. “he was a man of integrity and a fair-minded journalist blessed with wit, wisdom and an ability to paint a picture with his words that few have possessed.

“Cecil was loved throughout his community and state as an old-school journalist who covered the Alabama beat with class and professionalism. He was a role model for young writers and the most trusted source of news for Alabama fans everywhere. He leaves a wonderful legacy as one of sports journalism’s best. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as well as Alabama fans everywhere who loved Cecil as much as we did.”