NIAA inducts former Appeal sports writer into Hall of Fame

A longtime sports writer and editor known for his meticulous coverage of athletic events in two states for nearly a half century has been selected for induction into this year’s Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association/One Nevada Credit Union’s Hall of Fame as a media contributor.

Dave Price, who retired in 2018, spent 47 years walking the sidelines or watching hundreds of athletic events while working for three Nevada newspapers, The Record Courier, Nevada Appeal and the Lahontan Valley News. He began his career as a sports stringer in 1971 at the Tahoe Daily Tribune and became a part-time reporter in 1972. In 1974, the TDT tabbed Price as the newspaper’s sports editor, a position he held for six years. Price also covered sports for The Union in Grass Valley, Calif.

Upon learning of the news, Price said he’s humbled with the induction of the 28th class, which will occur April 3 at Reno’s Peppermill Resort Hotel. Price is one of 15 inductees comprising the largest group ever inducted into the Hall of Fame.

“I had benefited from high school sports,” said Price, who graduated from South Lake Tahoe High School in 1972, where he ran cross country. “It was a pathway to a lifetime career, and I always felt I wanted to give back to it.”

Price said high school sports is the highlight of any small community. Over the years, Price figures he had interaction with almost every high school’s athletic program in Northern Nevada except for some of the remote towns such as Jackpot, McDermitt and Wendover.

“I covered each of the Tahoe Basin schools: South Tahoe, Whittell, Incline, Truckee and North Tahoe including Ken Dalton’s debut game at North Tahoe, which the Lakers won on a blocked punt in the final 10 seconds … as I remember,” Price said.

Price moved to the Carson Valley in 1980 for a new assignment as sports editor at The Record-Courier in Gardnerville until 1996 and then transferred to the Nevada Appeal as a sports writer for the next 10 years. His beat included coverage of Carson, Douglas, Dayton, Galena, Fernley, Yerington and Virginia City high schools and occasionally Rite of Passage. In 2006, he accepted a sports editor’s position at Grass Valley’s The Union but returned to the Nevada Appeal the following year as a page designer until the recession resulted in a round of layoffs that included him.

In 2011, Price was hired as a general assignment reporter for the Lahontan Valley News in Fallon, where he covered Fallon City Hall, Churchill County Commission and Churchill County School Board with limited coverage of Greenwave sports. Price said he enjoyed working with former LVN sports editor Steve Puterski during his time in Fallon. Two years later he returned to The Record-Courier as sports editor for five years before his final day on July 2, 2018. During this time, he covered Douglas, Coleville and Sierra Lutheran high schools.

In 2018 the Nevada Press Association presented Price with one of its most distinguished honors, the Outstanding Journalist award.

Price joins a select group of journalists who have been inducted into the NIAA Hall of Fame such as Las Vegas sports writer Royce Feour, sportscasters Ernie Hall of Elko and Bob Stoddard of Reno and the legendary Ty Cobb, sports editor of the Nevada State Journal from 1938 to 1957. Although he joins an elite group of sports writers, Price said he also remembers some of the greats in Nevada prep athletics.

“To be mentioned in the same breath as Bert Cooper and Jerry Hughes, Joe Sellers, that’s pretty neat and pretty special,” Price said. “I just enjoy reflecting on the memories and the old stories.”

On every even year, inductees are selected into the Hall of Fame from Northern Nevada. In addition to Price other individuals include Reno coach and official Dan Anderson; Reed athlete Toni Brown (Fairbanks); Reno and Washoe County school district coach and contributor Art Collins; Lowry athlete and NIAA contributor Pat Dolan; Coach Rob Hastings (Wooster, Sparks, North Valleys, Galena); Virginia City basketball player Rollie Hess; official and athlete Skip Houk; Fallon volleyball player Jennifer Hucke; Reed athlete Michelle Palaroan; NNOA official Richard Pitts; coach Ed Shepard (Reed, Hug and Damonte Ranch); coach and athletic director Paul Tremayne (Austin and Battle Mountain); Bishop Manogue athlete Mike Whitemaine; and Lowry athlete Mitch Woods.