Mike Ingalls, the godfather of UVA Athletics coverage on the interwebs, is joining the staff at AFP as a regular contributor this week, beginning with our team coverage of the UVA-Texas A&M game in JPJ on Wednesday night.
Ingalls is best known for launching The Sabre, which began as VirginiaFootball.com back in 1996, when the internet was still in its infancy.
The site was an early hit with UVA fans – if you’re of age, you no doubt remember Ingalls’ iconic photo of UVA wideout Ahmad Hawkins celebrating his 47-yard TD catch-and-sprint that completed the stunning 36-32 comeback win over Virginia Tech in 1998.
In addition to editorial and photography, the parts of the job that you see, Ingalls was the man pushing the important buttons behind the scenes at The Sabre, handling the design and technology aspects of the site.
It’s just dumb luck for us that we now get to work with Ingalls, who is respected in local media circles and in the UVA community – the U.S. Air Force veteran is a former member of the Charlottesville Board of Visitors of the Virginia Athletics Foundation, the fundraising arm of UVA Athletics, which is responsible for raising the millions of dollars that go to pay for scholarships for student-athletes.
You’re going to notice a bump in quality of our photos with our game coverage and feature and analytical pieces on UVA Athletics going forward.
That’s going to be because of Mike Ingalls.
We’re also hoping to coax him into doing some writing, but first things first.