May 3, 2010 8:36:55 AM

Williams College has created another unique award to honor sports journalists at the school.

Already known for its Frank Deford Award, which has been given for 21 years, Williams recently established the Aaron Pinsky '06 Sports Broadcasting Award in honor of a former student play-by-play broadcaster who lost a two-year battle with brain cancer in February.

The Pinsky Award is presented annually to the top Williams student sports information assistant for excellence in sports broadcast journalism. The inaugural recipient at an April 26 ceremony was junior Lorenzo Patrick.

"For three years, Aaron Pinsky (left) broadcast football and men's and women's basketball and both his talent and enthusiasm are traits I hope all future Eph broadcasters will emulate," said Williams Sports Information Director Dick Quinn. "One of Aaron's great strengths was that he was always prepared to do the game. He brought a lot of stats and research with him. He had a knack for describing the action in a folksy, yet informative and entertaining manner, just like he did everything else here in his impressive Williams career."

Quinn said Pinsky delighted Eph fans, alumni and families across the country "with his smooth voice, sharp analysis and patented ‘Pinsky Points' awarded to players for displaying unusual hustle or heart during a game."

"Aaron had a personality that people gravitated toward," Quinn said. "He was known for his unique sense of humor and general affability."

Quinn also noted that Aaron's friends at Williams referred to him as "the ideal Williams renaissance man" for his editorial skills with the school paper and for playing the French horn in the school other local orchestras.

Patrick, the first Pinsky honoree, has called the action for Williams football, men's and women's basketball and baseball in his three years. "Lorenzo's very first football game he was paired with a senior, but the senior failed to show up," Quinn said. "Undeterred, Lorenzo hopped on the team bus and headed to Bowdoin where he did a fine job for someone who had never seen the Ephs play."

Quinn said Patrick will do some PA and broadcasting for the North Adams Steeplecats in the NECBL before returning for a fourth and final year to be the Ephs' primary broadcaster.

Winners of the 21st Frank Deford Award were seniors Tom Coleman, Dan Pesquera and Rachel Rosten. The awards are presented annually to the top student sports information assistant at the college.

The Deford Award, presented annually since 1990, is believed to be the only one of its kind in the nation. For many years, Deford was the top writer at Sports Illustrated and later served as the Editor of "The National," the first national sports daily in America. He is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio.

Deford is a Princeton graduate, but his love of the color purple and his involvement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation were contributing reasons for the award being created in his name. Shortly after arriving at Williams in the fall of 1989, Quinn wanted to create a way to recognize the outstanding contributions of the student sports information assistants.

He remembered an article by Deford years earlier in Sports Illustrated bemoaning the fact that his favorite color purple seemed to be worn by teams that could never win the big game (at the time the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Lakers).

Quinn and Deford also shared a life experience in that they both have lost a daughter to Cystic Fibrosis.

Quinn contacted Deford and convinced him to allow the Ephs to name the award recognizing the top Eph student sports information assistant in his honor. Deford came to campus to present the first award and a long list of nationally recognized figures in the sports field have followed.

This year, ESPNBoston's Gordon Edes was on hand. In four decades in sports, Edes has worked at the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The National Sports Daily, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Boston Globe and Yahoo! Sports. Edes worked for Deford at the National Sports Daily as a national baseball writer while Deford was the editor.