SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Longtime Providence Journal basketball writer and Newhouse alum, Kevin McNamara ’88, was one of seven reporters and columnists inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
McNamara is the second Rhode Islander and sixth New Englander inducted into the USBWA Hall of Fame, according to Rhode Island PBS. Bill Reynolds, who worked with McNamara at the Providence Journal, was inducted in 2020. The other inductees include Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe, who is a charter member, Jerry Radding of the Springfield Union News (2004), Charlie Pierce of the Boston Herald and Esquire (2018), and Lesley Visser of the Boston Globe, CBS, and ESPN (2023).
McNamara is a three-time Rhode Island Sportswriter of the Year, a two-time winner in the USBWA Best Writing contest, and a multi-winner in the Associated Press/New England Competition. He also has hosted the “Kevin Mc Sports Hour” show on WPRO radio in Providence, Rhode Island. On Apple Podcasts and Spotify, you can listen to “The 401 Podcast with Kevin McNamara.” McNamara launched a website called KevinMcSports.com, where you can see his published work. He also served as a contributor for the Basketball Times.
He started at the Providence Journal in 1988. McNamara spent his first two years at the paper covering high school sports and the University of Rhode Island basketball. He picked up the Providence College Friars men’s basketball beat for the 1990-1991 season and covered them until he was let go by the paper in 2020.
McNamara is the longest-tenured beat reporter in Big East Conference history. He has covered 34 Big East Tournaments and multiple NCAA men’s basketball Final Fours. McNamara also covered the New England Patriots’ Super Bowls, the Red Sox World Series Championships, and the NHL and NBA Finals.
McNamara told Rhode Island PBS that one of his favorite basketball memories includes his first Final Four in 1992 as a working media member in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He sat behind Duke’s bench. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s squad won back-to-back National Championships. The Blue Devils had Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner, and they beat the Fab Five freshmen of the University of Michigan.
Another memory was the 1997 Elite Eight at the BJCC Coliseum in Birmingham, Alabama. The Providence Friars were one shot away from securing a spot in the Final Four for the first time since 1987. They lost in overtime to the eventual National Champions, the Arizona Wildcats.
Of interest to Syracuse Orange basketball fans, McNamara was a media member at the Syracuse–UConn 2009 Big East Tournament game. The Orange upset the Huskies in six overtimes at Madison Square Garden in New York City, 127-117.
McNamara received a call from USBWA president Stu Durando in January, who informed him about the news. The USBWA Hall of Fame Class of 2025 also includes John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader, Chuck Culpepper of the Washington Post, Al Featherston of the Durham Herald-Sun, Associated Press writer Doug Feinberg, Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, and Milton Kent, who is a former writer of the Baltimore Sun.
McNamara and several other inductees were honored in April on the day of the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball National Championship game in San Antonio, Texas, between Florida and Houston. The awards luncheon took place at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio River Walk.