Thomas G. Lake

Class of 1999
Inducted: 2012
Journalism

Thomas Lake spent his teenage years homeschooled in the Mohawk Valley. His first newspaper story was published in the Little Falls Evening Times when he was a 17-year-old paperboy. Following graduation from Herkimer College, where he was a member of the track team and Phi Theta Kappa national honor society, Lake earned his B.A. degree in Communication Arts, summa cum laude, from Gordon College, MA. As of 2012, Lake is the youngest senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He won the 2008 Henry Luce award for Most Outstanding Story in all of Time Incorporated, the nation’s largest magazine publisher, for “2 on 5”, an account of an Alabama high school basketball team’s incredible comeback. He also wrote the feature article “Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?,” which helped restore the good name of Jordan’s former high school coach; and “The Shot That Saved Lives,” which described how a buzzer-beating three-pointer actually saved hundreds of people from a tornado. Lake’s writing accolades include a first-place award from the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors. Earlier in his career, Lake was a senior editor for Atlanta Magazine, crime reporter for the St. Petersburg Times (FL) and features reporter for The Florida Times-Union. He was also a reporter for The Salem News (MA) and The Press-Sentinel (GA). Lake says his stories use the techniques of investigative reporting to “uncover good deeds and prove people right.” He also serves as a mentor to many young journalists. Lake and his wife, Sara, currently reside in Atlanta with their daughter, Juniper.