He has won 52 Ohio and national writing awards and was the first non-Cincinnati newsperson elected to the Cincinnati Journalists Hall of Fame. McCoy has been the Cincinnati BBWAA Chapter Chair 22 times and was the BBWAA national president in 1997. He is the third writer from the "Dayton Daily News" to win the Spink Award, joining Si Burick (1982) and Ritter Collett (1991). He was inducted into the National Sports Media Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2016, he was inducted into the Dayton Region Walk of Fame, complete with a sidewalk plaque on Dayton's West Third Street. In 2015 the press box at legendary Howell Field in Dayton was named The Hal McCoy Press Box.