2019 Sports Silver Circle Inductee Arnold Payne

Arnold Payne is widely known among his peers as one of the most talented sports photojournalists in the country. He has a unique eye for the story behind the story and has covered
sports across the globe.  Arnold
started at KTBS-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1979 before moving to WFAA in Dallas in 1980.

Over the past 4 decades at WFAA, Arnold has covered 13 Super Bowls, multiple NBA Finals, World Series and Stanley Cup Finals. He has shot just about every Dallas Cowboys football game, home and away, for more than 30 years… dating back to the Tom Landry era. 

 

The images “AP” captured the day the Cowboys practice facility collapsed are still hard to believe. Showing “it’s never too late to reinvent yourself,” Arnold shot, produced, wrote and for the first time ever, reported a story in 2017. The feature was on amputee boxer, Roy Martin III and Arnold was honored with a regional Edward R. Murrow Award as a reporter. 

 

Not only has he shot thousands of stories that have aired on WFAA, he has also shot and produced many award winning documentaries, including: Emmitt Smith – On Route 22, The Landry Legacy and Valley Ranch – If These Walls Could Talk.

 

Arnold has received at least 21 Regional Emmy Awards, multiple regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, an NATPE Iris Award and 4 Barbara Jordan Awards among other honors. 

 

Arnold is the proud father of two, Pamela & Stephen. And if it’s true that the smallest things take up the most room in your heart, it’s his four grandkids Kyra, Kruze, Olivia and Grant, that he says, fulfills a space that he never knew was empty.