Born September 21, 1947. A native of New Orleans, LA, Fernandez was introduced to the sport by his prizefighter father, Bernard Sr. and began his sports writing career as a copy boy at the New Orleans Times Picayune, and later at the Miami Herald and Jackson Daily News in Mississippi. The first super fight he covered was in his hometown when Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks fought a rematch at the Superdome in 1978.
He relocated to Philadelphia and began covering sports for the Daily News in 1984 and took over the boxing beat in 1987 and remained until 2012. Among the historic bouts he covered from ringside include Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks, Buster Douglas’ upset of Tyson, Micky Ward vs. Arturo Gatti series and Julio Cesar Chavez’ 12th round stoppage of Meldrick Taylor. Fernandez, who now writes for such outlets as The Ring and The Sweet Science, has won over 100 awards for writing and public service, including the 1998 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in boxing journalism and the 2015 Barney Nagler Award for long and meritorious service to boxing.
A five-term president of the BWAA, Fernandez has appeared in three boxing films, Play It To The Bone, Rocky Balboa and Real Steel.
Born: Sept. 21, 1947
Induction: 2020
Bernard Fernandez
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