Ron Moshier has been a sports writing icon in Central New York for more than half a century. A native of Richfield Springs, he was a three-sport all-star and captain of the high school football, basketball, and baseball teams, was the school’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1975, and is a member of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

He is a 1979 graduate of SUNY Cortland, where he was sports editor of the college newspaper and also worked in the sports information office. That was the basis for his long and distinguished career, one that one of his former editors, Craig Muder, values highly.

“For four decades, Ron Moshier has been the storyteller for thousands of athletes in the Mohawk Valley,” said Muder, formerly the sports editor of the Utica Observer-Dispatch and now the communications director at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "Through print and later the internet, Ron captured the moments – big and small – that make athletics something we all love.

“But more impressively, Ron never let his readers forget that these athletes are human beings, sharing with us the personal stories behind the victories and defeats. As the sports editor of the Observer-Dispatch for more than a decade, I had the privilege to call Ron my co-worker and friend. He is truly a Hall of Famer.”

Moshier actually began his career writing for the Richfield Springs Mercury and Freeman’s Journal of Cooperstown when he was still in high school. After graduating from Cortland in 1979, he was a part-time writer for the Utica Observer-Dispatch and Daily Press before becoming the sports editor of The Evening Telegram of Herkimer. He also worked in the sports information office at Herkimer County Community College during that time.

He returned to Cortland and worked at the Cortland Standard as a sports writer for several years, then served for over 30 years as sports writer, columnist, and editor at the Observer-Dispatch. Since retiring in 2019, he has done freelance work for the Observer-Dispatch and the Daily Sentinel.

Although he might be best known for his coverage of scholastic sports, he has handled a multitude of assignments and every sport imaginable during his career. He was the beat writer for the Utica Devils of the American Hockey League, and covered the Utica Boilermaker Road Race for 30 years. He also was the Observer-Dispatch's motorsports guru, covering local tracks and regional NASCAR events, including Watkins Glen International. He also was a contributing writer for The Hockey News, Area Auto Racing News, and Trackside magazine.

Moshier helped found and coordinated and researched the Utica Newspapers' All-Mohawk Valley teams in multiple sports, and helped host the O-D's wildly popular All-Mohawk Valley Sports Banquet from 2017 to 2019, working with guest speakers Jim Kelly, Jim Abbott and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

His career has continued with part-time work with the Daily Sentinel, being noted especially for his columns spotlighting the collegiate athletic achievements of local high school graduates. He also taught sports journalism at Utica University, and wrote a book - "LAZZARO: The Man and his Machines" - on the life and times of local stock car racing legend and Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame driver Lou Lazzaro.

Moshier has been the recipient of numerous awards during his career, including the New York News Publishers' Association Distinguished Sports Column Writing Award of Excellence; the Les Diven Memorial Basketball Award for Dedicated Service to the Game of Basketball and Youth of the Area; the Les Diven Boilermaker Road Race Media Award; and the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's Section III Service Award. He twice won the New York State Associated Press Sports Column Writing Award, was the New York State Associated Press Association Sports Writing award-winner in 2014, and nationally, was the GateHouse Media Sports Writer of the Year runner-up that same year.

Moshier and his wife of 40 years, Monica Caughey-Moshier, live in Whitesboro with their rescue dog, Paislee.