Mike Finn named WIN’s Journalist of the Year

Editor’s Note: WIN’s recently published Volume 31 Issue 9, the Annual Awards Issue, is available for immediate digital access to subscribers. Subscribe here (Print/Digital/Combo). 

Photo: Finn (left), who retired this past February, served as WIN Magazine editor for over 21 years. 

By Tristan Warner

Mike Finn’s journalism career spanned 47 years, with over 21 of those years spent as editor of WIN Magazine.

Finn, who dabbled in the sport of wrestling at Columbus High School in Waterloo, Iowa, admittedly, never found success on the mat, but he fell in love with what wrestling taught him. It challenged him as an individual.

He took those life lessons and applied them to his professional career, chasing down stories and truth just as wrestlers chase down takedowns and pins.

Now, after retiring from his post in early February, Finn has been recognized as WIN’s 2024-25 Journalist of the Year.

“It is kind, and I am honored,” Finn said. “I would like to start by thanking Mike Chapman, the creator of WIN Magazine. Dan Gable, who was a hero to me as a kid, I got to know professionally, spending two hours a month talking about the sport and life.

“Thanks to Bryan Van Kley, who gave me some independence to do what I felt needed to be done, and so many coaches, athletes, and writers who would help me produce WIN Magazine. You need these people. You cannot do it by yourself.”

WIN publisher Bryan Van Kley said, “We’re excited to name Mike as this year’s Journalist of the Year Award winner, as he was a true professional journalist. He really understood the power of a great story, is a really good writer, and worked extremely hard to promote the sport by getting the most interesting stories of wrestling’s athletes and coaches out to the general public.”

Finn took a lot of pride in his role as WIN editor, and he insisted his primary goal was being able to share people’s stories. He believes everyone has a unique one to tell. He never shied away from challenging athletes and coaches with tough questions that drilled down deeper than the surface level.

“Wrestlers and coaches will be candid, but they need to be challenged a little bit more,” Finn explained. “Everybody out there who has an opinion now thinks they’re a journalist. A journalist tries to be fair and look at all angles. An opinion writer is different.

“Coaches and athletes hear more from the opinion makers than the journalists asking fair questions. Journalists have got to come together and build up more and be willing to take risks. If someone is going to subscribe and pay for a publication, they want quality. They want to find the story.”

Finn recalls an era where, not just in wrestling but across the board, athletic programs, coaches and the athletes themselves needed journalists to produce content to market and promote them. The new era of technology, in which programs have the capability to do a great deal of promoting themselves, Finn said, has presented challenges for the old-school journalist.

“In the newspaper era, journalism challenged people with stories. It was not all features. We were forced to do it to be competitive. With newspapers falling back and today’s technology, I had an SID for a well-known program who told me we don’t need the media anymore because we create our own.

“More than ever, we need independent journalists like WIN Magazine to take an objective point of view, not the school’s point of view. Think independently. I have concerns that I want journalism to be what it was when I got into it.

“I respect the newer generation. They are facing challenges we never had.”

Finn, who is now challenging himself in a different capacity in a part-time role working at a garden nursery near Cedar Rapids, looks back on his career and his final season as editor fondly. Choosing a favorite memory is like choosing between your favorite child, he says, but he does admit specific events stand out in his mind.

“Fargo is such a special place to go for a week-long tournament and see these young athletes doing something special. I saw (Kyle) Dake and (David) Taylor at Fargo as just kids … now they’re grown men and they’re creating something new. When I left Fargo for the last time (in July of 2024), it was emotional.”

Just as the sport challenged him, both as an athlete and journalist, Finn had one final challenge to pose to those future journalists poised to make their mark.

“No matter the medium, you have got to be curious. Look for a new story always. If somebody says no, keep moving forward. Try to find a different angle.

“There are no athletes and coaches better to have candid conversations with than wrestlers. I took a lot of pride in WIN just as if I was a wrestler on the mat. I wasn’t going to let it beat me. You may get taken down, but it is not going to beat you.”