Marc Spears, San José State alumnus, former Spartan Daily staff writer and NBA Hall of Famer, received the William Randolph Hearst Foundation Award for excellence in professional journalism and was honored on Saturday morning at the Hammer Theatre Center. 

The William Randolph Hearst Foundation Award comes from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation which seeks to identify and support different fields of work like journalism, according to its website. 

The foundation was founded in 1946 by publisher, movie and television producer and owner of the famous Hearst Castle William Randolph Hearst, according to a Hearst Foundation webpage.

Marc Spears is the fifth person to receive the award, following people such as former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and CNN journalist Jim Acosta.  

Spears joined ESPN as a senior NBA writer for Andscape in 2016, according to an ESPN  webpage. 

Andscape is a Black-led media platform dedicated to illuminating stories of Black identity and experience in journalism, according to its website. 

About 20 years before, Spears graduated with the class of ‘95 from SJSU and interned with many news organizations during his time at the university.

“San José State and the city of San José is very much the foundation of where I am today,” Spears said.

Spears said he was always gaining writing experience somewhere, whether it was for a school paper or an internship. 

He said his first unpaid internship was at Silicon Valley Metro, a newspaper based out of San José serving the greater Silicon Valley areas with weekly news, according to their website.

Spears said he interned through the Association of Black Journalists in Grand Rapids, Mich., and at the Mercury News writing about high school basketball, and eventually, at the Dallas Morning News after graduating. 

“I wasn’t getting paid nothing, but I didn’t deserve to get paid,” Spears said. “I was nobody at the time and they (news organizations) were taking a chance on me, I had to earn my stripes.”

Mark Purdy, a retired sports columnist for the Mercury News, said he first connected with Spears when he was in seventh grade after receiving a letter from him asking for advice as he wanted to be a sports journalist. 

“When I got his letter and replied back, I said, ‘If you’re really serious about this,’ and I could sense from his letter that he was, ‘Here’s what you need to do, you need to read as much as possible, write as much as possible, watch how other people do it, get experience by writing for your school newspaper. If somebody offers you a chance to write about anything, say yes,’ ” Purdy said. 

Purdy said he often responded to many letters, like the one he got from Spears, but he could sense a greater level of determination in his letter.

Years later, Spears credits a great amount of his own success to Purdy. 

“He’s very generous in saying I played this big part in his life and his career,” Purdy said. “I think he would have probably ended up this way anyway. He worked his ass off and kept his eye exactly on where he wanted to go.” 

Robert Rucker, retired professor and department chair of the Journalism and Mass Communications Program at SJSU, said one of his most memorable conversations with Spears came when he was his professor in the ‘90s.

“He is one of the rare students in 37 years who walked into my office hours and told me, ‘I’m going to do this, can you help me?’ and I said, ‘Okay,’ ” Rucker said. “The clarity of purpose was there from day one. When I watched him methodically go after stories that nobody else was doing. He was starting to separate himself from the rest of the students.”

Rucker said during the award ceremony that the same tenacity and work ethic that Spears had all those years ago is what got him to this point in his career. 

Devin Fehely, SJSU alumni, anchor and reporter for KPIX CBS 5, said he never knew Spears through SJSU, but eventually got to know him through the industry as an NBA journalist on the rise. 

“I’ve been really impressed with his evolution over time as he’s gone from newspapers, to now television, and really sort of performing at the highest level,” Fehely said. “I’m amazed by the evolution arc of his career, and I’m kind of excited to see where it takes him next.”

Spears took time to acknowledge the struggles he went through too.

He said he often faced struggles in his personal life being an unpaid journalist or in his career, sparking controversy with some of his articles.

During Spears’ time at SJSU he joined the men’s basketball team with the intention of becoming a professional basketball player. Spears eventually suffered a knee injury ending his basketball career. 

Carolyn Spears, Marc’s mother, said she recalls this exact time when Spears experienced this devastating event. 

“When he bombed his knee and realized his dreams were over, it really disturbed him,” Spears said. “But I said to him, ‘Write about it, you’re not gonna be a national basketball player, but you can write about it.’ ”

Carolyn Spears said the best part of this story that makes it a full circle moment is that almost 20 years later, Spears has been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a journalist.

Spears said the financial struggles he faced while being an unpaid intern or low-paid journalist was often discouraging for him.

“There were times when I would drive past McDonald’s and I thought maybe I should go work there for some extra money. I probably should have gotten food stamps at the time but I was too proud to do it,” Spears said.

Spears said he also faced struggles when it came to discussing uncomfortable subjects in his writing. 

He has written about racial disparity in athletics and the experiences of being a black athlete in many of his articles. 

Spears said he has received unwelcoming looks and comments, even death threats when speaking about these uncomfortable subjects. 

“I’ve always been writing about stuff that a lot of journalists aren’t comfortable writing about black or white or otherwise,” Spears said. “I felt like after George Floyd this bubble came up that made it bold to talk about this (topics relating to racism) it became cool to write about it then.”

His desire to speak about tough subjects is what brought Spears to Andspace, where he intersects sports and racial identities in his writing. 

Spears said his advice for anyone aspiring to be a journalist now is the same thing he tried to do for himself as a young journalist: pursue hands-on experience in the field and don’t just pursue the degree.

“You don’t have to be a star to get your stuff out there, you can make your own TV show and post it on YouTube,” Spears said. “If you differentiate yourself the next thing you know you have a following and then you have something going on.” 

Spears said San José makes him nostalgic and reaffirms the idea that it will always be home. 

“Every time I drive by campus or through San José, I’m flooded with memories,” Spears said.