Annual Tank McNamara “Sports Jerk of the Year” Award Open for Nominations

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (January 19, 2017) — Nominations are open for the 20th edition of the Tank McNamara “Sports Jerk of the Year” Award. For 20 years, the “Sports Jerk of the Year” Award has provided sports fanatics with the opportunity to voice their opinions on the distasteful acts committed by sports figures in the prior calendar year.

“The ‘Tank McNamara Sports Jerk of the Year’ Award is not really celebrating bad behavior,” Tank McNamara co-creator Bill Hinds said. “It’s shining the flashlight of shame on the scurrying cockroaches of sports. A block of wood found in the dumpster, topped by AstroTurf and a coat hanger bent into the shape of a thumbs-down gesture, the trophy is a fitting tribute to the dishonorees.”

“Sports Jerk of the Year” nominations are only for individuals—not for a team, league, organization or corporation—and are accepted in three ways through Thursday, Feb. 2: 

  • GoComics Facebook: Visit the GoComics Facebook page and comment with your nomination, including the hashtag #SportsJerk2016.
  • Tank McNamara Facebook: Visit the official Tank McNamara Facebook page and comment with your nomination, including the hashtag #SportsJerk2016.

The “Sports Jerk of the Year” Award winner will be announced on Wednesday, Feb. 15 via the GoComics blog, its social media outlets, the Tank McNamara Facebook page and the Tank McNamara comic strip, available in hundreds of publications. 

“The activities of the brats, scoundrels, and cheaters of sports will cause dark clouds to boil overhead until the heavens open up and pound them with a deluge of scorn and shame,” Hinds said. “Until then, there is the ‘Tank McNamara Sports Jerk of the Year.” 

Past winners of the “Sports Jerk of the Year” Award include cyclist Lance Armstrong, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Co-created in 1974 by Bill Hinds and the late Jeff Millar, Tank McNamara successfully merges the sports and comics worlds with sizzling satire of the absurdities in big-time athletics.

Hinds and Millar met in 1973 when Millar—who once said he couldn’t draw stick figures—went out looking for a collaborator for an adult-oriented comic strip about sports. Tank McNamara began syndication through Universal Press Syndicate in August 1974.

From 2001 to 2010, Hinds also wrote and illustrated the comic strip Cleats, which focused on the complex world of competition and camaraderie from the perspective of kids, parents, and coaches. Hinds and his family currently live in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston, which is his hometown.

Tank McNamara is available online at http://www.gocomics.com/tankmcnamara. 

Media Contact: 

Julie Bunge, Andrews McMeel Universal

816-581-7490

jbunge@amuniversal.com 

About Andrews McMeel Syndication

Andrews McMeel Syndication is the largest independent content syndicate in the world and a leading digital entertainment provider of humor, comic strips, political cartoons and other content for print, Web, and mobile devices. Andrews McMeel Syndication provides editorial development, licensing and other distribution services for iconic brands such as Doonesbury, Dear Abby, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Pearls Before Swine, and Big Nate. For more information on Andrews McMeel Syndication, visit UniversalUclick.com.

About GoComics

GoComics, from Andrews McMeel Syndication, is home to many of the most popular comics and cartoons in the world. GoComics.com is the Web’s largest catalog of syndicated newspaper strips and webcomics, offering new, fresh and free content every day. Comics include Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, The Boondocks, and Cul de Sac. GoComics is also home to Comics Sherpa, the site where aspiring cartoonists can showcase their work and receive feedback from the comic community. A full comic catalog can be found at GoComics.com.