Rex's current stint at the Bloomington Herald-Times began in 1968, and his love of high school sports has helped the H-T become a model for high school sports coverage.
Kirts is past president of the ISSA and he has twice been honored as the Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year. He has also been named the NSSA's Indiana Sportswriter of the Year. Kirts is also a recipient of the IHSAA's Distinguished Service Award.
A graduate of Lafayette Jefferson High School and Indiana University, Kirts was sports editor of the Crawfordsville Journal-Review for a year and a half and worked briefly at both Bloomington papers -- the Herald-Telephone (now the Herald-Times) and Courier-Tribune, before returning to the H-T in 1968.