Acclaimed Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) journalist Jordan Breen, BA’09, a King’s alum who died last year at age 38, is being honoured with a sports journalism award at his alma mater.
The Jordan Breen Award for Sports Reporting is worth $1,000 a year and recognizes an outstanding sports media project created by a King’s journalism student. The award was established by friends of Breen, who remembered him as “endlessly generous with offering both time and opportunities to those who were seeking their start in the sports media world.”
Breen’s friends raised money to fund the award, channeling their love and grief into something that will help students produce outstanding sports stories out of the journalism school.
A go-to expert
Breen died on June 1, 2025. Sherdog Radio Network, where he had hosted shows dating back to his college days, said the Dartmouth native was “regarded as one of MMA media’s most brilliant minds,” with his friends remembering his “passion, encyclopedic knowledge, and infinite curiosity” for mixed martial arts.
Sherdog says The Jordan Breen Show became a go-to source for hard-core fans of the octagon game. Breen also filed for ESPN and The New York Times as well as stepping into the broadcast booth for the Strikeforce and Tachi Palace Fights MMA promotions.
Breen was “endlessly generous with offering both time and opportunities to those who were seeking their start in the sports media world.”
The Jordan Breen Award for Sports Reporting provides $1,000 for students to produce their story.
The award is open to journalism students at the University of King’s College who are enrolled in any year of the Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) (BJH), the Bachelor of Journalism (BJ) or the Master of Journalism (MJ).
Story pitches will be judged on the following criteria:
- an outstanding sports journalism project, across any platform
- strong publication potential, in the opinion of the selection jury
- a demonstrated financial need for travel, fieldwork, Access to Information requests, public document searches, or other costs not already covered by journalism programs
Application information, including deadlines, will be announced in the fall.
Originally published in the King’s Journalism Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 4
