The Colin Jose Media Award was created to honor the contributions of members of the print and electronic media, including reporters, columnists, authors, broadcasters, editors, public/media relations professionals and others who specialize in communications with respect to soccer in the United States.
Bob Ley was one of ESPN’s original broadcasters when the network launched in 1979, and he played a role in covering 10 men’s and women’s World Cups between 1982 and 2015. He was ESPN’s primary studio host for the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany and the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups in South Africa and Brazil.
Ley will be honored May 3 at the National Soccer Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Frisco, Texas. The ceremony also will feature the induction of the Hall of Fame’s 2025 Class.
Over a 25-year career as a freelancer and employee of ESPN, Amy Rosenfeld was instrumental in the company’s critically acclaimed coverage of the Men’s and Women’s World Cups, serving as the lead producer for every single tournament from 1999 to 2014. She also led ESPN’s coverage of three UEFA European Football Championships and oversaw ESPN’s coverage of the English Premier League from 2011 to 2013.
She also is credited with helping to establish TV standards in the early days of Major League Soccer as a producer in 1997 and later overseeing ESPN’s coverage of the league from 2011 to 2022.
The Colin Jose Media Award is named for the preeminent soccer historian of North America who served as the Hall of Fame's historian from 1997 to 2007. “Colin’s legacy isn’t just in the books he wrote or the stats he collected — it’s in every conversation we have about the game,” said Djorn Buchholz, executive director of the Hall of Fame. “His passion for the history of soccer will always be there, guiding the rest of us who care about keeping the story alive.”
2025: Bob Ley, ESPN
2024: Amy Rosenfeld, ESPN, NBC Sports and other television broadcasters
2023: Grant Wahl, Journalist
2020: Andres Cantor, Telemundo Deportes Broadcast Talent
2019: Tony Quinn, Photojournalist
2018: JP Dellacamera, FOX Sports and other broadcasters
2017: Jim Trecker, Media Relations
2016: Paul Kennedy, Soccer America Print Media
2013: George Vecsey, New York Times Print Media
2012: Grahame Jones, Los Angeles Times Print Media
2010: Paul Gardner, Soccer America Print Media
2009: Alex Yannis, New York Times Print Media
2008: Ike Kuhns, Newark Star-Ledger Print Media
2007: George Tiedemann, Sports Illustrated Photography
2005: Seamus Malin, ESPN and other broadcasters
2004: Jerry Trecker, Hartford Courant Print Media
Colin Jose established and organized the Hall of Fame's archives, which are now housed in Hillsborough, N.C. He wrote more than a dozen books on the history of soccer in the United States and Canada, including landmark books on the original American Soccer League of the 1920s and the North American Soccer League of the 1970s and ’80s. He was one of the original members of the Society for American Soccer History, which was founded in 1993, and was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2009.
