No one writes sports like Hall

Sports Editor earns Ink-Stained Wretch Award during final month of coverage

The Hamilton County Reporter is proud to name Sports Editor Richie Hall as the Spring 2026 recipient of our Ink-Stained Wretch Award. Hall’s award certificate reads, “In recognition and appreciation for many years of service to the Hamilton County high school sports community.”

Publisher Stu Clampitt and Reporter Owners Ray Adler and Isaac Taylor presented Hall with his award on Thursday, July 2. Hall also received a fountain pen inscribed with the words “Ink-Stained Wretch,” and a $100 gift certificate for a celebratory dinner at Pasto Italiano, 3150 E. State Road 32, Westfield.

An ink-stained wretch is an old idiom from the halcyon days when people wrote with pens. [Editor’s note: A pen is a physical device filled with ink with which we used to scratch words on paper. “Ink-stained wretch” was a phrase for those of us who made a living from writing.]

Hall has been reporting on Hamilton County sports for 19 years. While he had worked as a sports writer at non-Hamilton County newspapers for a while, he started his time in this county under the tutelage of the legendary Don Jellison long before Don helped found The Hamilton County Reporter.

Hall is a member of the Hamilton County Basketball Hall of Fame, having been inducted as a writer in 2021.

On July 24, Hall will write his final sports byline in the newspaper industry. He told The Reporter in late 2025 that he wanted to do something different with the remainder of his working life. We know players, parents, coaches, and fans will miss him.

“I have worked in the print industry for longer than I care to admit, and I have never met anyone who can do what Richie does at the level that he does it – every week of the year,” Reporter Publisher Stu Clampitt said. “Every school. Every sport. Every season. It’s astonishing. He took the ball from Don Jellison and ran with it all the way to the hall of fame. Then he just kept running!”

Hall built a sports coverage team that is second to none in the Midwest.

“The owners of The Reporter had several conversations about what we would do in a post-Richie era, and we realized no one can ever live up to his standard for coverage,” Clampitt said. “He is the end of the Jellison legacy. The best we could possibly do would be to find someone who provides the kind of coverage you see everywhere else, and that is a sadly low standard in the modern world. That’s why we made the decision to make The Reporter a news-only paper going forward. When Richie goes, so goes the best sports coverage this county will ever see.”

Hometown Weatherman and Reporter Owner Paul Poteet said Hall handled sports like no one else ever could.

“Richie is a one-man 24/7 content machine, and a living library of Hamilton County sports,” Poteet said. “We’ve been so fortunate to have him on The Hamilton County Reporter team. I just picked up one of our last newspapers on our coffee table and counted about six bylines. I’ll miss that!”

Reporter Owner Isaac Taylor agrees that Hall is one-in-more-than-a-million.

“Richie Hall is that elusive combination of caring, knowledgeable, and good at what he does,” Taylor said. “Many moons ago, he dedicated himself to giving high school student-athletes the press he knew they deserved, and he’s proven that dedication time and time again. While this is a new era both for him and this newspaper, no one dares question the value of everything he has done for the people of Hamilton County and the surrounding areas for the last 25 years. Well done, Richie.”

You can see Hall at his final series of sports events this month in Hamilton County, and you might catch him at the 4-H Fair July 16 to 20 at the Hamilton County 4-H Fairgrounds, 2003 Pleasant St., Noblesville, when he pitches in for our giant 4-H results special edition, publishing the first week of August.

Hall got ink in his veins at an early age, and we are confident some of it will be there forever.

“I am very happy to receive the Ink-Stained Wretch award and would like to thank Stu, Isaac and The Reporter’s owners for the award,” Hall said. “I’m honored to be placed in the same category with such amazing writers as Janet Hart Leonard and Amy Shinneman, both of whom inspire me with their honesty and courage. It’s been fun covering the great athletes and coaches in Hamilton County over the years. Thank you for giving me so much to write about!”

We wish you all the luck in the world in the next chapter of your professional career, Richie. You quarterbacked this newspaper for over a decade, and you will be missed.