Illinois wide receiver Pat Bryant becomes the second recipient of the award after wide receiver Isaiah Williams won last year’s inaugural award.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

March 7, 20925

CHAMPAIGN  — Illinois wide receiver Pat Bryant is the winner of the Loren Tate Media Award.

The award, named after longtime Champaign News-Gazette writer Loren Tate, is awarded to the Illinois football player who not only is most cooperative with local media but exhibits himself with professional integrity in all interactions. Media who regularly cover the Illinois football team voted on the award.

This season’s voting included 21 media members from 13 different outlets who regularly cover the Illini. Bryant appeared on 20 of 21 ballots and received 13 first-place votes. He’s the second recipient of the award after wide receiver Isaiah Williams won last year’s inaugural award.

“Pat Bryant’s name will be all over the Illinois record books, but what he represented off the field was just as important as what he did on the field,” Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said in a statement. “He lived his routine every day, providing a consistence voice and leadership for our program.

“It is not a surprise to anyone in our building that Pat is this year’s Loren Tate Award winner. He is an outstanding representative of everything that both Illinois Football and Loren Tate stand for. He will honor this award’s legacy during everything that is ahead for him in the NFL and beyond in life.”

Bryant is an All-Big Ten Second Team Selection. He is the second consecutive Illinois wide receiver to earn All-Big Ten Second Team or better honors, following Isaiah Williams' First Team selection last season. Bryant was named First Team All-Big Ten by the Associated Press.

Bryant finished second in the Big Ten in receiving yards (984), tied for first in receiving touchdowns (10) and tied for second in yards per reception (18.2). Bryant tied the program's single-season record for receiving touchdowns and is the only player nationally with three game-winning touchdowns in the final two minutes or overtime this season. He ranks ninth all-time with 2,095 career receiving yards and tied with A.J. Jenkins for third all-time in career receiving touchdowns (19).

Loren Tate, 93, covered University of Illinois sports for the Champaign (Illinois) News-Gazette with frequency for 51 seasons from 1966-2017. He was News-Gazette sports editor or executive sports editor for the majority of those 51 years. He still continues to write a weekly News-Gazette column and is a frequent guest on radio shows on WDWS. Before joining the News-Gazette in 1966 as sports editor, Tate was sports editor of the Hammond Times in Hammond, Indiana, from 1955-66. Tate served as sports director of WICD-TV from 1968-79, reporting on the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news while also overseeing the News-Gazette sports section. He started his weekly radio show "Saturday Sportsline" in 1979 on WDWS. He became News-Gazette executive sports editor of the News-Gazette in 1987. In 1988, he won first place APSE award for best news story. In 1991, he shared a second place APSE award for best news story with co-worker Bob Asmussen. He contributed to the News-Gazette regularly being an APSE Top 10 section, top 10 special section 2001, 2006, 2010; top 10 Sunday section 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010; top 10 daily section 2011 Tate wrote the books "A Century of Orange and Blue: Celebrating 100 Years of Fighting Illini Basketball" and "Tatelines: A compilation of Loren Tate's best columns from more than 40 years of University of Illinois sports reporting."

He was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1974 and the United States Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2021. The University of Illinois gave Tate an honorary Varsity I.