Sportswriter Tony Zonca to join another Hall of Fame
Longtime sportswriter Tony Zonca will be inducted into the Carbon County chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday. The ceremony will be held at the Franklin Twp. Fire Hall in Lehighton.
Zonca is a special contributor for MikeDragoSports.com with his “Back Spin” columns, reflecting on local and Philadelphia sports teams and figures he covered over the years.
During a 34-year career (1968-2002) at the Reading Eagle, Zonca had roles as an assistant sports editor, Sunday sports editor, columnist and writing coach. He ended his career as a member of the editorial board.
He covered Penn State football, the Eagles, Big Five basketball, the Sixers, pro golf and tennis and the Reading and Philadelphia Phillies, along with the local high school and college programs.
As the boxing beat writer Zonca covered Muhammad Ali when he trained at Deer Lake in Schuylkill County. It was Zonca who broke the story worldwide in a copyrighted story announcing Ali’s return to the ring to fight then-champion Larry Holmes.
After retirement from the paper, Zonca spent eight seasons writing for the Reading Phillies website. From 2002-19 he coached basketball at Reading High, Alvernia University and Muhlenberg.
In 2021, Zonca wrote and self-published a history of Reading High basketball: “60 Years of Reading High Basketball: Carril to Perez.”
Zonca was a three-sport athlete at Lansford High and went on to play basketball and football while in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune. He also captained a championship volleyball team.
Following his discharge in July 1964 he joined the Lansford Evening Record as a photo-journalist. He became sports editor a year later. In September 1968 he joined the Eagle, subsequently recognized as one of the most respected sports staffs for a paper its size in the Mid-Atlantic region.
In 2005 Zonca received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Reading-Berks Basketball Association. In 2021 he was inducted into the Berks County Tennis Hall of Fame.
