In 1925, Figueroa Printers published the first Spanish- language newspaper in Indiana. El Amigo del Hogar — “a friend of the home” — was distributed weekly in the Indiana Harbor neighborhood of East Chicago.
Ninety-nine years later, on Saturday at Woodland Country Club in Carmel, Francisco Figueroa, the driving force behind El Amigo del Hogar, was inducted posthumously into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.
A daughter of Figueroa accepted the honor on his behalf and spoke eloquently of her father, his brothers and the entire Figueroa family, which was well represented among the induction audience of about 200.
She noted that her father’s induction was a great honor for her generation and an inspiration to the younger generations of the family.
That’s the beauty of halls of fame; they serve both purposes, to honor and inspire.
I was certainly inspired by the state journalism hall’s class of 2024.
I know two — Bill Benner and Max Jones — of the seven inductees personally.
Back when I was a young sportswriter learning the trade at The Herald Bulletin, several of the sports scribes from the Indianapolis Star and Indiana News provided inspiration and encouragement. Jim Russell, Terry Hutchens and Robin Miller went out of their way to compliment my work and always had a joke to tell or story to share.
But Bill Benner was the writer I looked up to the most, primarily because of his authoritative voice and toughness — no one, I imagined, could stand between him and a story. It also happened that
Bill’s niece lived in Lapel and was a beloved babysitter of my daughters. I came to know the Benner family as friendly, salt-of-the-earth people.
Max Jones, in later years, became my friend and one of my role models as a journalist. Always fair, always levelheaded and humble, Max is an excellent journalist who has spent the latter portion of his career as managing editor of the Tribune-Star in Terre Haute. He’s also made his mark with the Indiana Debate Commission and the Hoosier State Press Association.
The Trib-Star and The Herald Bulletin, both owned by CNHI, are sister papers, and I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Max on many projects across the past 17 years. As the Indiana editors in our company are fond of saying, we all hope that we can grow up to be Max some day.
Two of the other journalism hall inductees Saturday are journalists I’ve admired from afar. Sandra Chapman is a groundbreaking and trailblazing Indianapolis investigative television journalist who is familiar, I’m sure, to readers of The Herald Bulletin.
But it’s likely that you’ve never heard of Kathy Tretter, the folksy editor and publisher of the Ferdinand News, one of the finest small newspapers in Indiana. Trust me, you’d love Kathy. Here’s one of the many memorable quotes, describing her dedication to community journalism, from her induction speech: “I can write about sewer systems until the cows come home.”
Raises all sorts of images, doesn’t it?
The two remaining journalism hall inductees in the class of 2024 — Eric Deggans and Wallace Terry — are equally fascinating.
Deggans, a Gary native, is a media critic for National Public Radio and a writer whose life mission is to “call out inequality and injustice.” He authored “Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation,” released in 2012.
Terry, who died in 2003, was a reporter with the Indianapolis News, the Washington Post and Time magazine. He is perhaps best known for his seminal nonfiction work from 1984, “Bloods — Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History.”
I knew nothing about Deggans and Terry and Figueroa before Saturday. But I know this now: Their work, and that of the entire field of 2024 inductees into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, should inspire Hoosiers everywhere.
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