COLUMBUS — The Ohio Prep Sports Media Association has announced the 2025 induction class into the OPSMA Hall of Fame, which includes Ed Puskas and Rob Todor from newspapers in Northeast Ohio and Tom Wilson from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.

The OPSMA Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place during the OHSAA boys basketball state finals at the University of Dayton Arena on March 22. The three honorees will join 75 sportswriting greats previously enshrined in the OPSMA Hall of Fame.

The OPSMA inducted its first Hall of Fame class in 1983.

The OPSMA was created in 1972 to support, promote and recognize the coverage of high school sports across Ohio.

Puskas, the editor for The Vindicator and Tribune Chronicle, became a newspaper sports editor before he ever earned an actual paycheck in the business. His path in newspapers began when he became sports editor of The J-Hi-Life, the paper of record at Jefferson Area High School. Puskas credits J-Hi-Life advisor Ed Pickard, who taught journalism and English, for cultivating his interest in journalism. Pickard and the late, great columnists Mike Royko, Dick Feagler and Lewis Grizzard were chief among his early influences.

Puskas started at The Star-Beacon in Ashtabula while attending Kent State University’s Ashtabula Campus. He covered high school and college sports for former sports editor Karl Pearson, who also is a member of the OPSMA Hall of Fame. Puskas earned the first of numerous Ohio writing awards in Ashtabula from wire services United Press International and Associated Press.

Puskas joined The News-Herald in Lake County in 1991 before moving onto The Meadville Tribune in Meadville, Pa., in 1992. He joined the Tribune Chronicle in Warren in 1995, where he began as a sports copy editor/page designer under sports editor Dave Burcham and covered the Cleveland Indians, Trumbull County high school sports and Jim Tressel’s Youngstown State University football program. Puskas became sports editor in 2005 and was blessed with a talented group of sportswriters. In 2012, he became sports editor at The Vindicator in Youngstown in 2012, a position he kept until the newspaper printed its final edition on Aug. 31, 2019. Shortly after that, Puskas was named editor of the Star Beacon, where his professional career began. He was reunited with several former Ashtabula colleagues and eventually earned four consecutive Ohio Associated Press Media Editors first-place awards for editorial writing. Puskas directed the Star Beacon newsroom until July 29, when he accepted the editor job at the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator, published jointly by Ogden Newspapers, Inc., since Sept. 1, 2019.

Puskas and his wife Darlene live in Howland Township. Their daughter Erin is a teacher in the Medina City Schools. Ed Puskas may no longer be keeping late-night hours, but says he will always be a prep sportswriter at heart because covering high school sports is still the purest form of sports journalism and what he grew up doing. Puskas is grateful to his family for supporting his sportswriting career, the athletes and coaches whose stories he was blessed to tell over the years and the numerous colleagues — now friends for life — he met in every word factory along the way.

Rob Todor, a Vindicator and Tribune correspondent, began a lifetime of storytelling as a sports correspondent for his hometown paper, The Alliance Review, in 1980 while attending Mount Union College. After graduation he took a full-time position at The Review, covering high school and college sports for more than six years.

In 1990, Rob moved to The Vindicator, where for 22 years he covered the Mahoning Valley’s high school sports scene, the Cleveland Browns, the Cleveland Indians’ rise to greatness, and Jim Tressel’s nationally-ranked Youngstown State Penguins. In 1999, Rob was named sports editor of The Vindicator, a position he held for 13 years. During that time, he covered Tressel’s move to Ohio State, the NFL and Major League Baseball, and led The Vindicator’s sports team’s transition to digital media.

In 2007 his efforts were recognized with his induction into the Youngstown Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame. He returned to his hometown in 2012 as Executive Editor of The Alliance Review. From 2019-23 Rob was assistant regional sports editor, overseeing the sports coverage of The Review and four other Northeast Ohio newspapers.

His love of sports extended beyond the newsroom. He has been an OHSAA basketball official for 21 years and was selected to officiate the 2014 Division IV girls state championship game. Rob has also served as a game day worker for his alma mater, West Branch High School, in football and baseball, and was honored to receive a championship ring when the Warriors won the 2024 Division II state baseball title. He is also the official scorer for the Mount Union men’s basketball program.

He and his wife of 39 years, Cindy, live in Columbiana County. They have two adult children, Andrew, a grounds superintendent at Firestone Country Club in Akron, and Lyndsey, a teacher in the North Canton Schools. They also have four grandchildren, Aubree, Maddie, Paislee and Wesley; and a labradoodle, Winston, who thinks he is in charge.

Tom Wilson has been covering high school sports for 32 years. He began his career in 1989 at his hometown newspaper in Washington Court House at the Record-Herald. From there, he was a sportswriter at the Mount Vernon News and later was the sports editor there for nine years. After a brief stint at the Western Star Newspaper in Lebanon, Wilson moved on and was a sportswriter for the Newark Advocate from 2006 to 2013. For the past 12 years, Wilson has been a sportswriter at the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.

He has served on the Central District football and basketball voting panel for many years, and is currently Vice President of the Ohio Prep Sports Media Association. In his 32 years as a sportswriter and sports editor, Wilson has earned numerous awards from the Associated Press.