Mac McKerral
Faculty
Mac McKerral attended the University of Illinois to get a master’s degree in journalism for the sole purpose of writing for The Daily Racing Form and then The Blood-Horse magazine. He never did either. A life of drinking and gambling led him astray. Well, the truth be told, it was the life of drinking and gambling that led him to aspire to write for The Daily Racing Form and The Blood-Horse. But he never did. Instead, he spent his career as a reporter and editor at a variety of newspapers in four states, including a community weekly he started with two FORMER friends and finally as the editor of a business weekly in Tampa, Fla. He started as a feature writer/photographer, the best job he ever had. He’s taught college in Alabama and Florida, and now teaches at Western Kentucky University, where he serves as the news-editorial coordinator in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting. Despite his penchant for Kentucky thoroughbreds and racetracks (or thoroughbreds and racetracks anywhere) and Kentucky bourbon (or bourbon from anywhere), he managed to cobble together a reasonably successful career. He has been a Society of Professional Journalists’ member since 1986 and serves as co-adviser to the WKU chapter of SPJ. He served on the SPJ national board for 11 years, including as national president. He is in his third consecutive term on the board of directors of Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ’s supporting foundation. McKerral is the 2005 recipient of SPJ’s Wells Key, the society’s highest honor for service to SPJ and journalism, and in 1998 received SPJ’s National First Amendment Award for work on public access to campus crime reports. He was awarded the Florida Press Association’s highest honor two consecutive years for writing in defense of the First Amendment, the Jon A. Roosenrad Award. His undergraduate degree is in education from Arizona State University, and he taught history and coached basketball and volleyball at the junior-high level for three years. Sources close to McKerral say that he would trade it all for a position with The Daily Racing Form or The Blood-Horse — or a jug of bourbon.