Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2018 by Sports Video Group

Class of 2018

Gary Bettman

Mary Carillo

Bob Costas

Bill Fitts

Bud Greenspan

INDUCTION CEREMONY

December 11, 2018

The New York Hilton Midtown, Trianon Ballroom

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Life happens. Fires destroy homes. Illness costs money. Surgery needs recovery time. Accidents disable. The SPORTS BROADCASTING FUND, established in 2012 by SVG, is designed to offer financial support for industry professionals who find The SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund exists themselves in a difficult financial spot due to thanks to the generous financial support of those in our industry. As you or your company calamity, illness, injury, or loss of life. lays out charitable contributions, please make Our goal is simple: to be available as a “first sure to include the SVG Sports Broadcasting responder” and to quickly help those we serve Fund in your plans! pay bills, enabling recipients to stretch their The SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund is a designated fund of the own cash reserves so that stress related Alma Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. We are proud say that 90¢ of every dollar goes directly to charities. For more to financial challenges is not piled onto an to information or to view our 990 tax return, please visit us online at already stressful situation. www.almafoundation.net. FL REG# CH34972 • AL REG# AL11-461.

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SUPPORTING SPONSORS

esley Visser is the most highly acclaimed female sportscaster of all time. Her long and prestigious career has seen her as the first and only woman to be recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the 2006 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, which recognizes “long-time exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.” In 2009, she was voted the No. 1 Female Sportscaster of All Time by the American Sportscasters Association. And, in 2015, Visser was enshrined into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. In 2017, she was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. In addition to being a part of The NFL Today team, Visser contributes to CBS Sports’ coverage of the NFL Playoffs and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and Final Four. She also serves as an original panelist on We Need To Talk, the first-ever nationally televised all-female weekly sports show, which airs on CBS Sports Network. Visser is the only sportscaster in history who has worked on the network broadcasts of the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympics, U.S. Open, and World Figure Skating Championship. She served as lead reporter for the Network’s coverage of the NFL, teaming with CBS Sports’ No. 1 announce team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms in 2004. Visser worked her 35th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship last March, having worked the tournament for the Boston Globe, ESPN, and CBS. This season marks her 39th year covering the NFL. When Visser began covering the NFL for the Boston Globe in 1976, the credential often read, “No Women or Children in the Press Box.” She became the first woman to cover the NFL as a beat and remains the only woman to have handled the Super Bowl trophy presentation, for CBS in 1992 when the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills. Visser was a reporter and contributor for The Super Bowl Today, CBS Sports’ Super Bowls XXXV, XXXVIII, XLI, and XLIV pre-game broadcasts. She also has contributed reports for CBS News and served as a reporter for HBO Sports’ Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. She spent nearly seven years with ABC Sports and was the sideline reporter for Monday Night Football, becoming the first woman assigned to the series and the first woman ever to report from the sidelines during a Super Bowl. While at ABC Sports, Visser served as a reporter for college football bowl games and NFL playoff games. She also contributed to ABC’s coverage of Triple Crown horse racing, ABC’s Wide World of Sports, Major League Baseball, including the World Series, figure skating, Special Olympics, skiing, the Pro Bowl, and more. A pioneer at the highest level in both print and television journalism, Visser began her career in sports journalism in 1974 as a member of the Boston Globe sports staff.

THIS YEAR’S HALL OF FAME A MILESTONE EVENT

hank you for joining us tonight for the 12th annual Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame ceremony. It promises to be a wonderful night of celebration and remembrance as we honor 11 inductees who have transformed our industry. All of them have changed our industry for the better by tightening the bond between sport and television, whether they work in front of or behind the camera. There are five production and technology professionals whose work lays the foundation of sound and vision that allows fans to see and experience sports in new ways. There are four outstanding on-air personalities whose words give meaning, emotion, and understanding to the images and sounds. And then there are two sports industry executives who have taken sport and TV and helped marry them together to become forces in business and culture. Tonight’s ceremony also offers up some milestones. First, Lesley Visser will host the ceremony, the first time ever that a woman and a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame has hosted the ceremony. Lesley was inducted last year, and she holds a special place in the hearts of all of us who have had a chance to work with her over the years. Her love of not only of her craft but also the industry is infectious, and it is a privilege to have Lesley at the helm for tonight’s festivities. Another important milestone is that, after tonight, the Hall of Fame will eclipse the century mark and have 105 members. I will be the first to admit that I am amazed at how the quality of the inductees continues to be at such a high level. But, year after year, class after class, all of the Hall of Famers shine, and their stories make it clear as to why they are worthy of induction. And, no doubt, while we are gathered here tonight, there are those in our industry hard at work on a production and, unknowingly, building a Hall of Fame career. Finally, it is my pleasure to once again announce that 100% of tonight’s ticket sales, more than $195,000, will be donated to the Sports Broadcasting Fund thanks to the generosity of SVG and its sponsors who are underwriting all of the costs for tonight’s ceremony. The Sports Broadcasting Fund was established in 2012 as a way to support industry professionals who find themselves in a difficult spot financially due to illness, injury, or catastrophe. This year, the Fund helped dozens of individuals and covered the costs for everything from surgery bills, cancer treatments, lost income, and funeral costs. And, of course, as you are finalizing your giving plans for 2018, I ask all of you to visit the Sports Broadcasting Fund website and make the Fund part of your annual donation efforts. Once again, thank you for joining us tonight and being part of such a wonderful evening. And to all of tonight’s inductees, their families, and their friends, congratulations on being part of this special evening and welcome to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Happy Holidays,

Ken Aagaard Chairman, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame

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CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR VERY OWN

GARY BETTMAN The National Hockey League is proud to support the Sports Broadcasting Fund aiding the industry and its families in their time of need

GARY BETTMAN Father of the Modern NHL

ports is dominated by statistics. Bigger, faster, better, tougher are all measurable. Accumulating enough good numbers, a player is a sure bet to be elected to the sports league’s hall of fame. Business success can be measured in some of the same ways. That’s why NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman joined his league’s hall of fame this year and is being inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. In a media era, one of the big reasons for both honors must be how, under Bettman, the NHL went from a media non-starter to a staple on NBC Sports’ networks. The numbers tell that story. In 1993, the year Bettman moved from the NBA, where he was general counsel, to the NHL, the hockey league collected a paltry $400 million in revenue. This season, it is looking at $4.5 billion. In 2014, Sportsnet In Canada paid $5.2 billion for its 12-year contract. Three years earlier, the NHL had signed a 10-year $2 billion deal to keep the games on NBC-owned properties, an important deal then but, compared with other sports’ recent contracts, seems almost modest. Under Bettman, seven new teams joined the league, most of them in oddly un-hockeyish cities. The Vegas Golden Knights? The Tampa Bay Lightning? Who woulda thunk it? The NHL grew from 24 teams to 31. Those are some of the numbers that earned him a place in the NHL’s Hall of Fame, under the “Builder” banner. He is also the first commissioner to be inducted into a sports hall of fame while still in office. And he is now the dean of pro sports commissioners: at 66, he has presided over the league for 25 years, longer than any of the other Big 4 sports commissioners. Before Bettman, hockey was anything but must-see TV. Between 1976 and ’89, the NHL had no contract and tried to sell games on a station-by-station basis around the nation. In 1994, Fox, having bested CBS for rights to the NFL, won the NHL contract just as Bettman arrived. After that, ABC and ESPN showed a limited schedule, and, in 2006, NBC joined the party. “When I came to the NHL,” Bettman says, “it was underexposed. This great game, these great players deserved to be more than regional staples. I knew it was going to happen, but a big part of the

problem was finding the [time] slots to handle us.” About the time the NBC contract happened, something else happened: HDTV. The new sets were hot sellers by 2006. With the more vivid and, most important, wider screen, the NHL caught a break. Fans at home could now see plays develop, see the passes set up, even see the puck more easily. The thrill of the sport was finally there. “Everybody had the notion that there was nothing like being at a hockey game in person and that it couldn’t be replicated on TV,” Bettman says. “We were at a disadvantage. But, when it was in HD, all of a sudden, the clarity and especially the wide-aspect ratio changed that.” The games popped. In his years as commissioner, Bettman has made lots of changes, not all of them endorsed by fans at first and some not even now. Hockey fans have tribal traditions and, it appears, deep suspicions. Bettman eliminated the quaint and historic names for conferences and divisions. Gone were groupings like the Prince of Wales Conference, replaced by geographic designations. He instituted a shootout for deciding the winner of tied games. Some fans still hate it, but few can deny that it’s exciting. And he has presided over three work lockouts, nasty ones that set up and then adjusted the collective-bargaining agreement and the salary cap. The second impasse, in 2004-05, went on so long that Bettman canceled the season. But Bettman also gets credit for making the NHL stable and growing. Players are paid much more. Franchises are worth much more. Thanks to a wise association with BAMTech, NHL.tv thrives. And look what he started on ice. The Winter Classic, Heritage Classic and NHL Stadium Series are now massively popular games: hockey played in the (hopefully cold enough but not too cold) outdoors. Games are now played in China, too, with hopes that the league can construct a predictable yearly schedule of games in foreign locales. Bettman expects to be around to see it happen. “I don’t love being commissioner as much as I used to; I actually love it even more,” he said at the NHL induction ceremony. “For those who think I might be getting ready to retire, forget it.” – PJ Bednarski

Congratulates all of the 2018 Hall of Fame Inductees

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MARY CARILLO

Globetrotting Correspondent, Born Storyteller

afe to say, there aren’t many professional tennis players that expect their career to take them to China to feed bamboo shoots to panda bears. But there’s no athleteturned-broadcaster quite like Mary Carillo. Born in 1957 and raised in Douglaston, Queens, in New York City, Carillo knew from a young age that she would be an athlete. “I always knew I was a jock,” she says. “Honestly, my first-ever memory was as a four year old when my father threw me a red rubber ball and I didn’t miss it. I caught it, and I just thought, I want to do this for the rest of my life.” A childhood spent playing all kinds of sports depending on the season eventually transitioned into a career playing one sport: tennis. In 1977, she teamed up with her longtime friend — and future broadcast partner — John McEnroe to win the French Open mixed-doubles title, and she continued to play professionally through 1980, when knee problems forced her early retirement. However, knee problems couldn’t keep Carillo from the sport she loved. While competing professionally, she provided pickup commentary for the occasional tennis match. A producer from USA Network, hearing her commentary during year-end championships at Madison Square Garden, invited her to commentate on the network’s coverage of women’s tennis. Soon, Carillo added men’s tennis matches to her broadcast responsibilities and would go on to serve as a tennis analyst for a variety of networks, including NBC, ESPN, CBS Sports, Turner Sports, Tennis Channel, HBO, PBS, and MSG Network. Although tennis analysis earned her accolades from the industry, her work at the Olympic Games made her a household name. Her Olympic career began during the 1992 Albertville Olympics, when CBS Sports assigned her to cover skiing, a sport she knew nothing about. It would be the first of many assignments where Carillo’s can-do attitude and always-say-yes mantra resulted in insightful, candid, and entertaining commentary. “I always said yes,” says Carillo of her early days as an Olympic commentator. “Somebody would ask me, have you ever covered skiing? Are you interested? And I would say, absolutely! My attitude has always been yes, the answer is yes, until proven otherwise. I’ve encouraged both my children to treat life the same way. If it’s interesting, say yes.” She continued to cover skiing at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer (1994) and Nagano (1998) and added bobsled, luge, and skeleton to her repertoire in Salt Lake City (2002). For the Summer Olympics in

Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000), she served as a tennis analyst. With every Olympics, she took on additional hosting and reporting duties. However, it was at the 2008 Beijing Games that Carillo found her Olympic niche: as a feature correspondent. Dick Ebersol, then chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics, sent her and her production team to China ahead of the Games to see what they could find. They returned with stories about young Chinese acrobats, about a 14th century monastery, and, perhaps the highlight of the trip, pandas. “Feeding pandas bamboo shoots was one of the great assignments of my life,” she laughs. From then on, Carillo’s mission at every Olympic Games was to find stories that hadn’t previously been told during NBC’s coverage. “She has a great sense of adventure and a great sense of curiosity,” says Bob Costas, who worked alongside her on many Olympic Games. “She’s up for anything. She’s up for going to Siberia to find out how people actually live year-round in one of the coldest inhabited places in the world. Or she’ll find the actual girl from Ipanema, who’s now in her 70s, on the beaches in Rio. She’s good at serious stuff and quirky stuff. She has a good sense of humor. She can say something funny herself, but, if you get off a good line, she’s the best audience. She has always been wonderful to work with.” This year, Carillo wrapped her 11th Olympic assignment with NBC, her 14th overall. She continues to serve as an analyst on NBC’s tennis coverage and as a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, a post she has held since 1997. “Mary has always brought a unique skill set to the show, one that enables viewers to emotionally connect with her stories,” says Gumbel. “[She’s] a superb listener; Mary’s open and generous nature has often helped her elicit honest responses from normally reticent interview subjects. Although she can boast of an enviable record of athletic and journalistic success, she has been the definition of a team player.” A desire to see new places and meet new people is not just a professional calling but a personal passion, one she has passed along to her children, Rachel and Anthony. And, although tennis remains her first love, Carillo’s innate curiosity for every sport and athlete she encounters has made her one of the most beloved voices in the business. “If there’s one thing I have in my favor,” she says, “it’s that I love sports. I love the athletic heart, and I’m always curious about anything at all athletic or competitive. I’ve gotten very passionate about some sports just from covering them over the years and getting to know who these athletes are and how much they give to their sport. Their commitment, their dedication is, to me, fascinating.” – Karen Hogan Ketchum

Congratulations

Lawo to all 2018 inductees from

for making

a difference in

Sports Broadcasting!

BOB COSTAS

Sports’ Poetic Voice and Conscience

t’s the early 1960s in central Long Island, and sitting alone in his family’s suburban driveway is a little boy. No more than 10 years old, he has swiped the keys to his father’s car. It’s a hot, clear summer night: the perfect kind of night for a young Bob Costas. The kind of night when the big 50,000-W radio stations of the day streaked across the skies and landed in his father’s dashboard like commercial jets touching down at Idlewild Airport. The baritone voice of Bob French poured in from KDKA Pittsburgh, Ernie Harwell streamed in on the waves of WJR Detroit, and, on the best of nights, between the static, there was Jack Buck and Harry Caray all the way from KMOX Saint Louis. “The games,” Costas recalls, “were inseparable from the voices that brought the games to me.” Mickey Mantle may have been his hero, but it was the likes of Allen, Barber, and Glickman that would be his influences. Young Costas already had a dream, one that would see him become one of the most impactful broadcasters of the modern television era. Costas, a 28-time Emmy Award winner, has been the face of many of the largest sports events that U.S. television has ever produced. Whether it was the play-by-play call of the World Series or the NBA Finals or sitting behind the desk for a big night in the NFL or the Olympic Games, he is a benchmark of sportscasting. “I marveled at his composure and his sophistication on the air,” says Jim Nantz, veteran CBS broadcaster and fellow Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee. “Bob’s career has been absolutely remarkable; it is rich with so many great broadcasts and legendary experiences. He’s just been a tremendous part of the history of this business.” Graduating from Syracuse in 1974, Costas quickly landed on the scene in St. Louis, calling games for the Spirits of St. Louis of the old ABA. Soon came regional swings of NBA and NFL broadcasts for CBS and then his big break, when he was hired by NBC Sports. At just 28 years old, Costas was undoubtedly young for the national scene, and his new boss, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Don Ohlmeyer, didn’t hesitate to let the kid know he looked more like a 14-year-old than a TV anchor. That baby face, however, quickly turned into boyish charm as U.S. viewers fell for the intelligent, well-spoken young man who would become one of the most respected minds in the history of sports media. Costas has served as the face of many of sports television’s big-

gest blockbusters. He was NBC’s primetime host for a U.S.-record 11 Olympics (1992-2016), including the 2012 London Games; the most-watched television event in U.S. history (217 million viewers). From 2006 to ’16, Costas hosted Football Night in America, one of the most watched shows on television week in and week out. He also hosted six Super Bowls, including Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, which still ranks as the most-watched program in U.S. television history (114.4 million viewers). “Bob appeared in our living rooms in the final years of network dominance of the television airwaves, when a single baseball broadcast each week thrilled fans and created legends,” says Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, who broadcast with Costas at NBC in the 1980s and ’90s, including the 1997 World Series that earned Costas his first Emmy for play-by-play. “Four decades later, Costas has maintained his presence as one of [sports’] great voices and erudite observers.” Costas has maintained his elite standard for journalistic excellence. He hosted numerous interview and commentary programs throughout his career, including On the Record and CostasNOW, both airing on HBO. He even earned a News and Documentary Emmy Award for his riveting interview with Jerry Sandusky, which aired mere days after the former Penn State coach was accused of sexual child abuse. “It was a phoner, and it was one of the most gripping interviews that any of us will ever see,” says Rome Hartman, executive producer of NBC show Rock Center, on which the interview appeared. “Bob was pitch-perfect. He was respectful on a human level, but he didn’t give a single inch.” Throughout his storied career, however, there has been one constant: Costas’s love of baseball. In 2009, he joined MLB Network, where he still calls games, and, in 2018, received an honor that surely would have thrilled that little boy in that car: he was named recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, inducting him into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. “I hold him in the highest regard,” says longtime NBC Sports colleague Mary Carillo, a fellow Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee. “He can do any sport, and he can talk about anything. He can talk to presidents of countries, not just presidents of the IOC [International Olympic Committee]. Bob is, to my mind, one of the all-time greats.” – Brandon Costa

CONGRATULATIONS to the

12th Annual Sports Broadcasting HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES GARY BETTMAN MARY CARILLO BOB COSTAS BILL FITTS BUD GREENSPAN PETER LARSSON DAVID MAZZA GENE MIKELL JIM NANTZ NEAL PILSON DICK VITALE

BILL FITTS

A Career of Firsts, a Lasting Legacy

hen your broadcasting career includes producing the first Super Bowl, launching The NFL Today for CBS, and then jumping aboard ESPN in its formative years, it’s easy to think that ego could take over. But that didn’t happen to Bill Fitts, a long-time production professional who credits those around him and takes more pride in their success than his own. “I was very fortunate to have unbelievable acolytes,” he says. “We had all-star people coming in to ESPN, although we didn’t know it at the time. We all had an opportunity to do something that hadn’t really been done and to do sports that a lot of networks didn’t cover.” Fitts began his career at WHUM-TV Reading, PA, and soon after went to WCAU-TV Philadelphia (at the time, a CBS station), where he had a chance to wear multiple hats while creating children’s programming. In 1962, he moved to New York City, where he played a key role in national sports programming. During his career at CBS, Fitts was executive producer on five Super Bowls, including Super Bowl I from the Los Angeles Coliseum. He was involved with another important first in sports-TV history: the use of videotape at the 1963 Army-Navy game. He was also involved with Countdown to Kickoff, a production with NFL Films that took isolated coverage to a new level. And then there was NFL Today, a franchise that Fitts created in 1973. The show also led to Fitts’s being noticed by Chet Simmons, then head of NBC Sports. Simmons hired Fitts to help studio operations. When ESPN became a reality, Simmons joined as president and soon called Fitts. “By the time ESPN started,” says Fitts, “there wasn’t much in sports that I hadn’t done. ESPN was a huge opportunity for me because I knew I would be able to teach as well as do it.” Those early days gave him a chance to both impart wisdom and influence a generation of talent at ESPN (and beyond) and also to enjoy the process of figuring out how to televise sports that might never have been on TV before. At ESPN, he served as production architect for many of its signature programs. He also found John Colby to compose its music, including the popular SportsCenter theme, and to build a music library. “It is not an understatement to say that Fitts is among the truly influential figures in modern sports TV,” says Colby. “In addition

to his CBS and NBC achievements, he built the production department at ESPN, a team that shaped sports TV for years to come. His protégés are to be found everywhere in the highest levels of sports TV.” Among the people whom Fitts has influenced are Sandy Grossman, Fred Gaudelli, Drew Esocoff, Bryant Gumbel, Chris Berman, Gayle Sierens (the first woman to do play-by-play on an NFL game in 1987), and Gayle Gardner. “At the very beginning of my career, I had the tremendous fortune of working for Bill Fitts,” says Gaudelli, who worked with him at ESPN from 1983 to 2001. “He pioneered how to cover the entirety of sports, not just what was happening with the ball. He was really teaching us how to keep advancing the production. And,” he adds, “he was deploying women into major production roles far sooner and more sincerely than the rest of corporate America.” Tina Thornton, ESPN SVP, production and office of the president, calls Fitts a force. “Regardless of the event,” she says, “he demanded the highest quality and performance. His drive and energy, even in the later years of his career, was hard to match. While he helped shape the sports-media landscape, I credit him more with shaping a collection of future leaders. Bill’s legacy continues in all of us.” “He put me in production positions when very few females were given such opportunities,” says former ESPN Director of Production Ellen Beckwith, who worked for Fitts at CBS, NBC, and ESPN. “He trusted me, along with him, to make hiring decisions in our early days at ESPN, successful decisions that led to my being named director of production.” Through it all, there has been his wife, Frances. She recalls when Fitts was sent off to basic training for the Korean War in 1954 and, 11 days later, she gave birth to the first of four children. Although the two-year hiatus interrupted not only family life and his career, Fitts was able to make up for lost time both professionally and personally. His management philosophy was to make sure that people were not assigned tasks they couldn’t accomplish. Instead, he looked to get them into winnable situations, where they would have challenges they could overcome by using their talents. “Any of us who were touched by Bill’s brilliance and leadership owe him a tremendous debt of thanks,” says former ESPN EVP Steve Anderson. “There is no doubt in my mind, Bill Fitts deserves to be in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.” – Ken Kerschbaumer

THE VOTING COMMITTEE WELCOMES YOU TO THE

2018 INDUCTION CEREMONY CHAIRMAN Ken Aagaard, CBS Sports and HOF

VOTING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Rick Abbott, PGA Tour Adam Acone, NFL Glenn Adamo, Ivanhoe Productions Fred Aldous, Fox Sports and HOF Steve Anderson, ESPN Michael Aresco, American Athletic Conference Katina Arnold, ESPN Mike Arnold, CBS Sports Lance Barrow, CBS Sports Bob Basche, Connect Sports & Entertainment Steve Beim, Fox Sports Chris Berman, ESPN and HOF Andrea Berry, The G.A.P. Media Group and HOF George Bodenheimer, HOF Steve Bornstein, Activision Blizzard and HOF Robin Brendle, CBS Sports Tim Brosnan Garrett Brown, HOF James Brown, CBS Sports Harold Bryant, CBS Sports Dick Button, HOF Chris Calcinari, ESPN Mary Carillo, NBC Sports Leonard Chapman, HOF Jason Cohen, CBS Sports Joe Cohen, The Switch Michael Cohen Rob Correa, CBS Sports Bob Costas, NBC Sports Michael Davies, Fox Sports Morris Davenport, ESPN Jim DeFilippis Ed Delaney Donna Devarona Jed Drake Dave Dukes, PGA Tour Productions Dick Ebersol, HOF Dick Enberg, HOF John Entz, Fox Sports Drew Esocoff, NBC Sports Group Patti Fallick, USTA Craig Farrell, Alliance Productions John Filippelli, YES Network Davey Finch, HOF

Sam Flood, NBC Sports Bob Fishman, CBS Sports Barry Frank, IMG Media and HOF Rosa Gatti Fred Gaudelli, NBC Sports Group Jerry Gepner Bruce Goldfeder, NFL Network John Gonzalez, NBC Sports Group Ed Goren, HOF Steve Gorsuch, USTA Ken Goss, NBC Sports Curt Gowdy, Jr., SNY New York Mark Grant, CBS Sports Ross Greenburg Mark Haden Gordon Hall, Showtime Steve Hellmuth, NBA David Hill, HOF Barry Hogenauer Deb Honkus, NEP and HOF George Hoover, NEP and HOF Charlie Jablonski, OnLive Keith Jackson, HOF Craig Janoff Barry Johnstone, CTV OB and HOF Robert Jordan Howard Katz, NFL and HOF Artie Kempner, Fox Sports Ken Kerschbaumer, SVG Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Chris Laplaca, ESPN John Leland, PSL International David Levy, Turner Sports Mark Loomis, Fox Sports Verne Lundquist, CBS Sports and HOF Jodi Markley, ESPN Geoffrey Mason, ESPN and HOF David Mazza, NBC Olympics Mike McCarley, Golf Channel John McCrae, CBS Sports Bill McKechney, F&F Productions Sean McManus, CBS Sports and HOF Mike Meehan, NBC Sports Johnny Miller, NBC Sports

Steve Milton, CBS Sports Jim Nantz, CBS Sports George Orgera, F&F Productions and HOF Chuck Pagano, HOF Phil Parlante Tony Petitti, MLB Patty Power, CBS Sports Jamie Reynolds, ESPN Scott Rinehart, University of Notre Dame Jimmy Roberts, NBC Sports John Roche, NEP and HOF Mike Rokosa, NHRA Amy Rosenfeld, ESPN Jennifer Sabatelle, CBS Sports Tom Sahara, Turner Sports Chuck Scoggins Jeremy Schaap, ESPN Eric Shanks, Fox Sports Tom Shelburne, HOF John Skipper, DAZN Suzanne Smith, CBS Sports Molly Solomon, Golf Channel Charlie Steinberg, HOF Jerry Steinberg, HOF Bob Stenner Susan Stone, MLB Network Pat Sullivan, Game Creek Video and HOF Larry Thorpe, Canon and HOF Bob Toms, ESPN Lesley Visser, CBS Sports and HOF Leslie Anne Wade Eric Weinberger, NFL Michael Weisman, MSNBC and HOF Darrell Wenhardt, CBT Systems Mike Werteen, NEP John Wildhack, ESPN Mike Wimberley Mickey Wittman, HOF Richard Wolf, The Switch Gary Zenkel, NBC Sports

BUD GREENSPAN Olympic Storyteller

ate TV-journalism pioneer Don Hewitt titled his autobiography Tell Me a Story. That would also be an apt title for a book about the late Bud Greenspan, whose legendary Olympic documentaries were less about the heroes than they were about the often heartbreaking, often exhilarating stories of athletes in competition and away from it. “We don’t do sports as much as we do people,” Greenspan used to say. And he didn’t do sadness or defeat as much as he did victory: victory of spirit, if not always the kind of victory that earns medals. “There are people who do negative better than I,” he told The New York Times. “I want to spend my time on what’s good.” The proof of that was in the documentary Lillehammer ’94: 16 Days of Glory, his chronicle of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games. Those Games will forever be remembered for the Nancy KerriganTonya Harding figure-skating fracas that shocked the world. But, in Greenspan’s 209-minute film, that grimy crime got 30 seconds. Greenspan ran the company from his early days with his beloved wife, Cappy, who died of cancer in 1983. After her death, he ran the company he named after his wife with his business partner and companion Nancy Beffa. Greenspan documentaries also captured Olympic Games in Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Nagano (1998), Sydney (2000), Salt Lake City (2002), Athens (2004), Torino (2006), Beijing (2008), and, released after his death, Vancouver (2010). He also produced many other Olympic-themed works, such as Jesse Owens Returns To Berlin, his 1964 documentary about the visit by the African-American runner whose four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games mocked Adolf Hitler’s claims of Aryan superiority. He also directed 100 Years of Olympics Glory. Greenspan, who was born in 1926 and died in 2010 from Parkinson’s disease, used to joke that he really hadn’t been to all of them; it just seemed like it. Beffa recalls, “Bud always said, ‘Every Olympic athlete needs four things: pride, talent, courage, and the ability to endure.’” That philosophy didn’t necessarily set him aside from others who covered the Games. But some circumstances did. For one, Beffa says, Greenspan didn’t care where the athletes were from. For another, he didn’t particularly care if the sport they played was well known. And he didn’t care if they didn’t win. The best example of all of that — indeed, one of the indelible examples of Greenspan’s style — happened at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City.

John Stephen Akhwari, representing Tanzania in the Marathon event, was seriously injured during the run. But he kept on, in obvious pain, limping on a bandaged right knee and finishing the race more than an hour after everyone else. Later, Greenspan asked Akhwari why he didn’t quit. “I don’t think you understand,” the runner told him. “My country didn’t send me 9,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 9,000 miles to finish the race.” Greenspan, forever with a pair of glasses on top of his bald head, came to sports documentaries in an odd way. After serving in World War II as an intelligence officer, he returned to his native New York and quickly forged a career in radio at the old WHN, becoming its sports director in his early 20s. But he also loved opera and thought he could sing. To make extra money, he got work in 1952 as a spear carrier in the chorus. While in the chorus, he met John Davis, an African-American baritone, who, despite having won Olympic gold medals in 1948 and ’52 as a heavyweight weightlifter, was unknown to most sports fans. Greenspan was astonished. And that led to his first documentary, The Strongest Man in the World, made with a borrowed $5,000. He couldn’t sell it, though. He was in a panic, he recalled later when he received his Peabody Award for lifetime achievement. Luckily, he learned that the State Department was looking for something to show at consulates to counteract Soviet propaganda about U.S. treatment of black athletes. Financing Greenspan’s documentaries took a lot of angel investors and shrewd negotiations. And the big networks worldwide tried to claim the best camera berths and other perks from Olympics organizers. But Greenspan made friends around the world by covering athletes from different countries. They tipped him to interesting stories; in fact, that’s how he heard about the marathon runner. When negotiating with host countries, Greenspan reminded them that his film mission was to celebrate, not denigrate. That helped. Greenspan was among the first to popularize documentary styles like showing crowd reactions to tell the story. He died before the ease of creating videos via smartphones reached just about every corner of the world. How would he react to that? Beffa says, “I think he would see these short pieces and say they are well-edited. It would be nice. But they would be forgettable. They wouldn’t tell a story.” – PJ Bednarski

Congratulations to our own Peter Larsson and all 2018 Inductees to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame

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PETER LARSSON Wireless-Camera Pioneer

oday, sports-TV viewers sit in the driver’s seat with Jimmy Johnson as his No. 48 car tears around Daytona Motor Speedway. Or peer over Tiger Woods’s shoulder as he crouches to read his final putt at Augusta National. Or sail aboard Oracle Team USA’s yacht at the America’s Cup. Without the efforts of Peter Larsson, however, these mind-blowing perspectives would never have been available to viewers at home. The co-founder of Broadcast Sports Inc. (BSI) and the wireless-camera and -audio systems he has helped create over the past four decades have brought sports fans inside the action in ways never thought possible. “To be able to create equipment and technology that actually change the way we watch a sport is very rare. And Peter Larsson [has accomplished that] in two sports in particular: NASCAR and golf,” says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Chairman Ken Aagaard, who has deployed BSI systems on countless CBS Sports productions. The Sydney native earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of New South Wales. To fulfill the three months of industrial experience required to complete his degree, he landed a job at Australian broadcaster Channel Seven. By the late 1970s, Larsson had begun working with fellow Channel Seven engineers John Porter and Dave Curtis to develop wireless microwave camera systems. In 1979, the trio deployed the RF system during the Bathurst 1000 in New South Wales as the firstever on-board Racecam. Larsson, Porter, and Curtis’s big break came in fall 1980, when a CBS production executive on location Down Under spotted the onboard camera system and saw it as a perfect tool for the Tiffany Network’s live NASCAR coverage. “Racing coverage was never the same after that,” says longtime CBS Sports director Bob Fishman. “When you think of Peter Larsson, you think of a brilliant innovator, an engineer who helped design a camera system that changed auto-racing coverage by putting the viewer in the driver’s seat during a race.” A year later, Larsson, Porter, and Curtis deployed their on-board cameras for CBS Sports’ live coverage of the 1981 Daytona 500. The in-car camera became a sensation two years later, treating viewers to a driver’s-seat perspective of Cale Yarborough’s winning race at the 1983 Daytona 500. “Peter had the passion and vision to develop and implement a technology that took a sport from minor-league status to majorleague status,” says veteran Fox Sports director Artie Kempner.

“I don’t believe NASCAR would have attained the same level of prominence in American sports without the in-car camera.” Today, NASCAR coverage would be almost unrecognizable without on-board cameras. “He truly revolutionized the sport with on-board cameras,” says longtime NBC Sports auto-racing director Mike Wells. “He is truly a pioneer in the industry.” In late 1983, the triad pooled their funds and moved permanently to the U.S. to launch their own company, Broadcast Sports Technologies (BST). The fledgling operation was based out of a five-bedroom house in Connecticut. By 1986, the company was expanding beyond its work with CBS Sports, which renewed its deal with BST that year without the exclusivity clause included in the original contract. That year, BST began providing on-board cameras for IndyCar races on ABC and NBC and for ESPN’s NASCAR coverage. With more systems deployed on more events, BST opened a fully staffed engineering facility and office in Hanover, MD. In 1996, CBS Sports was in search of a vendor to provide reliable wireless cameras, microphones, and comms without the need for massive — and unsightly — antenna towers. BST won the contract in a competitive vendor shootout and has been a staple on golf coverage for CBS and others for two decades. 1996 also marked another major transition for BST. The company was purchased by Wescam, a provider of gyro-stabilized aerial cameras, and changed its name to Broadcast Sports Inc. (BSI). In 2002, L3 Technologies acquired Wescam and BSI; in 2015, Slate Capital Group acquired BSI from L3 Technologies. BSI has continued to innovate since the turn of the century, transitioning from analog to digital systems in the mid 2000s and debuting its first HD wireless camera systems in 2007. In 2011, the company launched dual-path in-car systems for auto racing. Although Larsson is known to be one of the hardest workers in an industry filled with workhorses, he is also a devoted family man to Debbie, his wife of 27 years, and their three children: son Evan and daughters Kate and Natalie. Despite 40 years in the business, the eight-time Emmy Award winner isn’t done yet — not by a long shot. “Every single series we do has some different aspect to it, and we have to be able to serve all those [customers] flawlessly,” says Larsson. “The only thing that’s constant in this business is change, and we’re always making sure we’re ready for what’s coming next.” – Jason Dachman

Congratulations to all of this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inductees With special recognition to Dave Mazza The NEP team has been honored to work with you, Dave, for over 30 years. We are thrilled to see your accomplishments and talent recognized tonight.

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DAVID MAZZA

NBC’s Gold-Medal Tech Visionary

here aren’t many people who can turn a childhood passion for taking things apart into a Hall of Fame career, but David Mazza has done just that. “I was very lucky to start developing a passion for this in elementary school, which then led to the A/V club, building a TV studio in junior high, and then an internship at WPSX-TV in Penn State and working on Penn State Football while in high school,” says Mazza of his formative years. Getting from being passionate about the industry to working in it required a lucky break, and that came in 1977, a year he spent in Colorado washing dishes at a ski lodge and playing the role of ski bum. “At the end of the season, I saw an ad in Ski Racing magazine that read ‘Wanted: good skier with an electronic background,’” he says. “I got the job with Omega Timing, and they taught me how to run timing systems.” He traveled on the World Pro Skiing tour for two seasons and, in 1979, also started dabbling in being a freelancer in TV production. From 1980 to ’86, he was a full-time freelancer and found himself working as the TD for HBO on boxing and Wimbledon, CBS Sports, NBC golf, and even the first two MTV Music Awards, in 1984 and 1985. Mazza made the leap to the Olympic Games in 1984, serving as technical director for the rowing and canoeing venue at the Los Angeles Summer Games. By the end of 1985, he was considered one of the top freelance sports TDs in the business. “I still miss the adrenaline of sitting behind the switcher and getting only one shot to do it correctly,” he says of a lifelong love of being truly live to air. However, it was soon time to find something more stable: he had recently married his wife, Taylor. In 1987, he moved to Boston, where he was hired to build a new technical TV facility for the Christian Science Monitor Channel. During the time in Boston, Mazza continued to fulfill his live-production passion by working on HBO’s boxing and Wimbledon coverage as well as the Seoul, Albertville, and Barcelona Olympics for CBS and NBC. He and Taylor also had two children: a daughter, Niven, in 1989 and a son, Lundun, in 1991. In 1992, he went to work for Sony on design and construction of

DirecTV’s playout plant in Castle Rock, CO. That experience served him well when he made the move to NBC Olympics. In 1994, Mazza joined NBC as director of engineering. By the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he was director of engineering for NBC Olympics and, in 1997, opened the NBC Olympics Engineering office. Since then, he has worked on 11 Olympic Games for NBC (15 overall), and each Olympics is unique, with each host city posing new cultural differences, new languages, and a new approach to completing a task. “It takes a few days for things to settle down after the Opening Ceremony,” he notes, “but it is gratifying to see the number of things that have to go right to get to that point.” Former NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol says that, in the 10 Olympics they worked on, Mazza handled all those challenges and then some. “In my two decades-plus of running NBC Sports,” Ebersol notes, “there was no single person as valuable to me and to our entire unit as Dave. In the 10 Olympics I did with Dave, I cannot think of a single incident when he was not our most valuable performer.” Former NBC Olympic host Bob Costas spent plenty of time over the years making good use of the efforts of Mazza and the technical team. “Without Dave figuring out what for most of us would be an unsolvable Rubik’s Cube,” he says, “the Olympics would never get on the air.” Since 2000, every Olympics has seen a technical advance that makes a difference to millions of viewers across the U.S. or to the team producing the coverage. Says Mazza, “I love how we have to take a lot of very complex technologies, some newer and less mature than we’d like, and get them to work halfway around the world, often in difficult conditions, with thousands of staff freelancers who have had less than a week to understand them all. That whole process is incredibly gratifying.” When asked what he is most proud of, he cites the strength of his marriage, the love of a large extended family, and having raised two amazing kids. He readily admits that it is his wife who should get the credit for the kids. “For that, I feel incredibly blessed.” – Ken Kerschbaumer

CANON CONGRATULATES D AV E M A Z Z A , G E N E M I K E L L , A N D A L L T H E D I ST I N G U I S H E D 2018 SPORTS BROADCASTING HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

GENE MIKELL

Six Decades of Masterful Video Control

ene Mikell will enter the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame not just as an octogenarian but as an octogenarian who still spends a day or two a week working in a remote-production truck for Fox Sports. “I work with a bunch of guys in their 40s and younger, and I try to keep up with them,” he says. “And, if they do something I don’t like, I’ll tell them.” Born near Jacksonville, FL, Mikell spends much of his time on a farm far removed from the high-tech world of the video-control area he calls home on the road. Odds are, you don’t recognize his work, but you have seen it: he sets the course for the videocontrol department at Fox Sports. Video control includes the role of camera shader, making sure that all the cameras match and the images they provide to the production team are realistic in terms of color and lighting. “If you don’t have pretty cameras, you don’t have a good show,” Mikell observes. “Because I worked on them, I know what is going on internally in the camera, and that helps an awful lot with color.” His interest in technology began when his father sent him to a six-month technical school in Atlanta in 1956. “I had no idea why he sent me there. I just figured he wanted me to be able to fix TVs,” he recalls. “But, when I got home, I registered with a job agency in Jacksonville and interviewed with a TV company. It was the local NBC affiliate, and I got the job on the spot, beginning as a mail boy.” Mikell quickly took on a number of tasks, including moving studio props, camera operator, and even film editor and engineering. Working with cameras kicked off an interest that has served him well in his career: his work in camera shading and video control has put him at the top of his field. Working in Jacksonville gave Gene a unique opportunity: working on many rocket launches at Cape Canaveral, from Alan Shepard’s first until the days of the Shuttle launches. “NBC Network news would ask for me,” he recalls, “and I would do video for the space shots.”

He would spend 28 years at the NBC station and, in his late 40s, walked out and entered the freelance world. “I didn’t know if I could make it or not,” he says, “but I had a desire go out and do something different.” His work at NBC Network also gave him a chance to work on the sports side as a freelancer for Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famers like Frank Chirkinian and Don Ohlmeyer. Golf, tennis, college football, and IndyCar were among the events he worked, and his efforts led him to Miami-based World Sports Vision Group, for which he installed on-board cameras for NASCAR races. In that role, he met Hall of Famers Fred Aldous, Jerry Steinberg, and Ed Goren, who were then at CBS Sports and would bring him on board to work at Fox Sports in 1994. One of his favorite jobs has been working with WTVJ Miami. In 1987, Pope John Paul II was coming to visit, and Mikell was assigned the task of putting a camera on the “Pope Mobile.” The camera was a hit and even traveled with the Pope across the Atlantic to Europe, and he eventually saw shots from its use in Europe. “That was a highlight,” he says. “There is no better feeling than knowing that everyone in the world would see it.” Mikell’s wife, Sandra, died 15 years ago, but he has two daughters, one of whom lives with him on the farm, making sure everything is okay while he is on the road. And, on the road, he has the Fox Sports team and people like Aldous keeping an eye on him. “Freddie and I work on different ends of the truck,” says Mikell, “but he doesn’t let a day go by without asking me if anything was wrong.” Says Aldous, “I first met Gene in the mid ’80s working with CBS. The thing that most impressed me was how he handled any situation with ease, as well as his interaction with others. He has a great eye for detail and has mentored many video shaders throughout the years. And he is, by far, the nicest man in television.” – Ken Kerschbaumer

JIM NANTZ

The Family Man Who Became Sports TV’s Father

“

Hello, friends.”

That’s far more than a calling card or a catch phrase. It’s a daily reminder that, in the sports-broadcasting industry, we’re family. For 35 years, Jim Nantz has been family to millions of U.S. television viewers who have welcomed the legendary broadcaster into their homes for some of sports TV’s biggest events, including countless NFL and March Madness games, as well as thrilling major golf tourneys. It’s a rare and special feat to achieve an entire career’s worth of successes at one network, but that is what Nantz has done. After graduating from the University of Houston and serving brief stints at CBS affiliates in San Antonio and Salt Lake City, he got his big break with the network. It was obvious from the get-go that he was where he belonged. “He just blew everybody away with his audition,” says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Ed Goren, who was an executive producer at CBS Sports at the time. “The guy was 25, 26, and smooth as could be. It was a pretty easy decision to offer him the job.” In his 34 years (and counting) at CBS, Nantz has, so far, been honored with three Emmy Awards and named National Sportscaster of the Year five times. He started at CBS as studio host of the network’s college-football coverage in 1985. He moved to the booth to call play-by-play in 1989 before moving to the NFL scene in 1991. By ’93, he was on the No. 2 NFL crew before becoming host of The NFL Today. In 2004, he went out on the road as the network’s lead voice for The NFL on CBS, calling four Super Bowls (Super Bowl LIII in February will be his fifth). Nantz’s class and style are forever ingrained in the minds of fans of The Masters and the NCAA Final Four. It was fellow Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee Neal Pilson, then president of CBS Sports, who gave Nantz his shot at the tournament he loved, putting him up in the 16th Tower in Augusta to call the action in 1985. He has been an integral part of the iconic event’s coverage ever since. As for the Final Four, Nantz has leant his voice to the crowning of a college basketball champion every year since 1991, calling the action for many years with his counterpart Bill Packer. Over the past four years, he has been teamed with former NBA All-Star Grant Hill and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Bill Raftery, who

once compared Nantz’s style with that of Walter Cronkite. “[Nantz] was the voice of reason on TV for the public,” Raftery says. “There’s a comfort people have.” Nantz’s career has been marked by several extraordinary feats. Annually, he gets to take part in a week that any broadcaster would dream of: he goes straight from the Final Four to Augusta for the Masters. In 2007, in fact, he became the first broadcaster in history to complete what has been dubbed “The Triple”: calling the Super Bowl, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, and The Masters — all within about 60 days. He has done that three more times and will do it again in 2019. His career has also given him the chance to call the shots at the US Open Tennis Championships for nearly a decade, broadcast from the booth of two college football national championship games (1996, 1997), and even host his network’s coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Nantz’s story is a charmed one, but, to him, it’s one highlighted not just by great accomplishments on the air but by love and friendships. There’s Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Jim McKay, one of his childhood heroes. In college, Nantz wrote him fan letters and then got to know him so well that he was asked to give the eulogy at his funeral. Jack Whitaker was such an idol that Nantz never imagined attending Whitaker’s wedding, but, today, Nantz says, if he’s within 50 miles of Whitaker, you can bet he’ll make the effort to go see him. Even former President George H.W. Bush called Nantz “one of the nicest and most generous people we know.” “[These men are] one of the last links to my youth,” reflects Nantz. “[They] made such an indelible impression on me and then to be able to have the gift of friendship from them, that’s a pretty amazing thing. I’ve never taken it lightly.” And, of course, there was his father, Jim: the man who was Nantz’s real hero and inspired his son’s iconic phrase. Leaving a visit with his father to go call the 2002 PGA Championship, Nantz explained to his dad, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, that, when he opened the broadcast of that event with “Hello, friends,” he was talking specifically to him. For years and years, Nantz has extended that kind of hospitality to all of us, making us feel like his family and making us feel right at home, even on sports’ biggest stages. – Brandon Costa

NEAL PILSON

Prodigious Leader and Sports-Rights Negotiator

hether in the boardroom, at the negotiating table, or evaluating a telecast, few sports TV executives in history demonstrate such a preternatural knack for making the right decision at the right time than Neal Pilson. During 19 years at CBS, including 13 as president of CBS Sports, Pilson helped transform the Tiffany Network into a live-sportsprogramming goliath and earned a reputation as a tenacious but honest negotiator and cerebral tactician. Departing CBS in 1994, he launched consulting firm Pilson Communications Inc. (PCI) and has played an integral role in negotiations for billions of dollars in sports-rights deals over 25 years. “With rights deals [for] the NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA, the Masters, NCAA football and Final Fours, the Olympics, and NASCAR, Neal’s legacy of building and upholding the tradition of CBS Sports during his two stints as president is as much a part of our long and storied history as are the great events and moments we have broadcast,” says Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports. Pilson served in a private law practice in New York City and in executive roles at Metromedia and Williams Morris Agency before joining CBS Sports in 1976 as director of business affairs. He was immediately tasked with building up its live sports properties. An early accomplishment proved to be one of the most important rights deals in the history of sports TV: an agreement with NASCAR for flag-to-flag live coverage of the 1979 Daytona 500. The move was a windfall for CBS and would elevate NASCAR from a regional property to one of the most popular sports in the U.S. “Neal played a critical role in the development of the sportsrights [business],” says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Barry Frank, who was president of CBS Sports at the time. “He was extremely successful in bringing new rights to the network and making deals that were extremely fortuitous.” By 1981, CBS was seeking stability atop its sports ranks. The company turned to Pilson, who, at age 41, became the youngest president in CBS Sports history. “Before Neal, it seemed like we had a new president every couple years,” says Fox Sports pioneer Ed Goren, a producer at CBS Sports throughout most of Pilson’s tenure. “Neal brought stability. I look back at Neal’s run as the golden age of CBS Sports.” As president, Pilson continued to bolster CBS Sports’ portfolio, adding the NCAA Men’s Final Four in 1981 and inking one of the first $1 billion deals, for exclusive rights to the entire NCAA

Tournament beginning in 1990. He boosted CBS’s college-football rights throughout the 1980s and led CBS’s successful $643 million bid for the 1992 Albertville and 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, both of which delivered ratings gold. Pilson brought the PGA Championship to CBS in 1991 and negotiated renewal agreements for the NFL, the Masters, the NBA, the PGA TOUR, and US Open tennis. “We developed a very strong live on-air presence and were very competitive in [negotiating for] just about every major property that came up,” he recalls. “We were first or close to first among all the [networks] when it came to sports.” Between 1983 and ’86, Pilson served as EVP of CBS Broadcast Group — overseeing CBS Sports, CBS Radio, CBS Television Stations, and the Operations Division — before transitioning back to president of CBS Sports. “I have tremendous respect for Neal and what he did in procuring so many massive events,” says Jim Nantz, who was hired at CBS Sports during Pilson’s regime. “He has touched this business and many careers in so many ways.” In 1994, Pilson left CBS Sports and served a short stint as SVP of CBS Broadcast Group. Retiring from CBS in June 1995, he immediately launched PCI, with NASCAR as his first client. Pilson has also served as an expert witness and consultant on landmark sports-media court cases for the NCAA, Horizon Sports Management, WGN and the Chicago Cubs, NFL, and NBA. Though esteemed most for his work at CBS Sports and PCI, he views his role in launching the annual March of Dimes Sports Luncheon, which now raises more than $1 million each year, as one of his prime accomplishments. “Neal’s leadership, wisdom, and grace have made our association stronger and our long relationship always pleasant,” says March of Dimes NY board member Joe Cohen. Today, Pilson operates PCI out of his office in Lenox, MA; serves as a selectman in the town of Richmond, MA; and is an adjunct professor for the Columbia University Graduate Program in Sports Management. He and his wife of 56 years, Frieda, have three grown children and six grandchildren. “When people ask, ‘What would you do differently?,’ I’m probably one of the few people who would not change a single thing,” says Pilson. “I’ve been lucky in many ways, and I’m truly happy with every move that I’ve made and the wonderful relationships that I’ve made along the way.” – Jason Dachman

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES SPORTS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM CONGRATULATES

NEAL PILSON Lecturer, M.S. in Sports Management Program Two-Term President of CBS Sports

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DICK VITALE

College-Basketball Wordsmith

master of wordplay that has enhanced the lexicon of sports broadcasting, Dick Vitale has inhabited the TV screens of college-basketball fans for four decades. With a résumé that includes numerous Hall of Fame inductions (notably the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Hall of Fame), eight movie appearances (including Blue Chips and He Got Game), nine books, and countless iconic calls, he has always had a simple motto that has kept him grounded. “My parents told me to never, ever believe in the word can’t and to always be good to people,” says Vitale. “I used to hear at the dinner table every day that, if you’re good to people, a lot of good things are going to happen for you.” Growing up in East Rutherford, NJ, Vitale graduated from Seton Hall University after four years at East Rutherford High School. In athletics, he was involved in all sports, but basketball presented a unique opportunity. “I realized that, if you want to get ahead in the coaching profession as a guy that wasn’t a great player or had a recognizable name, the quickest way to the top was basketball,” he says. “I went to as many clinics and camps as I could and studied as much as I could about the game.” Beginning his coaching career at the high school level, Vitale found his first taste of success at his alma mater, earning two consecutive state titles during a seven-year tenure. He rose through the coaching ranks and became head coach at the University of Detroit. He excelled at the helm, leading the Titans to a 21-game winning streak and capturing the school’s second NCAA-tournament appearance in 1977. Before a Sweet 16 matchup against defending national champion University of Michigan, then-NBC Executive Producer Scotty Connal approached Vitale with an opportunity to speak to the broadcast team of Emmy Award-winning announcer Curt Gowdy and five-time AP College Coach of the Year John Wooden, who served as analyst. The men on the call noticed his larger-than-life persona. Vitale recalls, “Scotty told me [after the game] that both guys on their way out of the arena, said, ‘Man, we really like that guy’s energy and enthusiasm. You should think about him in TV someday.’” The NBA’s Detroit Pistons came calling in 1978, but the gig lasted only one season. Soon the coach crossed paths again with Connal, who had recently been named VP of sports programming and operations at the fledgling ESPN. “When Scotty called me to do my very first game, I told him I didn’t

want to do it and I wanted to get back into coaching,” says Vitale. “He called me back a week later, and the rest, as they say, is history.” He traded in a whiteboard for a microphone and called his first college-basketball game — ESPN’s first major NCAA game — on Dec. 5, 1979. “Back then, he was just unbridled enthusiasm,” recalls ESPN anchor Bob Ley.“I say this with affection, but he was like an untrained colt.You were trying to get him into the gate and teach him what broadcasting was because what he had to offer beyond that was infectious.” With exposure and experience, Vitale gradually found his voice and became the face of ESPN’s college-basketball coverage. An eclectic mixture of exuberance, excitement, and expertise, he began captivating viewers with nicknames like “Diaper Dandy” (a promising freshman player) and “PTP” (a primetime player) as well as such phrases as “awesome with a capital A!” “Those are said in the locker room,” he says. “I just transferred a lot of that to television, and it’s become a really fun situation. Scotty taught me that there’s two things to broadcasting: you want to educate, and you want to entertain. I’ve always tried to do that.” In more than 1,000 games, Vitale has teamed up with other prominent personalities on the sidelines, such as Brad Nessler, Brent Musburger, and Jim Simpson. Throughout the years, he has never strayed from what makes him great. “He’s one of a kind because of his love, knowledge, and passion for the game,” says Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “People want to hear him. There will never be anybody like Dick.” Although his on-air presence and lighthearted personality have left their mark on the world of sports, Vitale’s efforts in fighting childhood cancer have changed lives across the nation. “One of his great friends was [late coach/broadcaster] Jimmy Valvano,” says Steve Anderson, former EVP, content operations and creative services, ESPN. “He has done everything he can to keep [the V Foundation for Cancer Research] and that fight for cancer going.” Vitale’s status in sports-broadcasting lore remains secure through his unwavering passion for the game and his philanthropic endeavors. Beginning his 40th season behind the mic, he credits many individuals for helping him along the way. “Some beautiful people have played a vital role: the incredible inspiration and drive of my parents; my second family at ESPN; my wife of 47 years, Lorraine; my daughters,” he says. “I’ve been a very blessed and lucky guy. I’m not in these halls of fame if these people weren’t so good to me.” – Kristian Hernandez

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR VERY OWN

DAVE MAZZA

BOB COSTAS

MARY CARILLO

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, NBC SPORTS GROUP & NBC OLYMPICS

HOST, NBC SPORTS GROUP

OLYMPIC CORRESPONDENT & TENNIS ANALYST, NBC SPORTS GROUP

AND THE ENTIRE 2018 HALL OF FAME CLASS

THE LEGACY CONTINUES

hall of famers from years past...learn more a

Marv Albert ’15

Roone Arledge ’07

Fred Aldous ’15

Marvin Bader ’08

Julius Barnathan ’07

Deane Beman ’09

Chris Berman ’17

Allan B. ‘Scotty’ Connal ’13

Howard Cosell ’07

Harry Coyle ’07

Bob Dixon ’14

Ray Dolby ’12

Dick Ebersol ’11

Dick Enberg ’09

Stan Honey ‘17

Howard Katz ’13

Ed Sabol ’07

Craig Sager ’16

Steve Sabol ’11

Ron Scalise ’11

Joe Schiavo ’13

Chris Schenkel ’14

Vin S

Lesle

congratulations to the class of 2018

at www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org

George Bodenheimer ’12

Steve Bornstein ’14

Garrett Brown ’09

Jack Buck ’11

Dick Button ’15

Leonard Chapman ’10

Frank Chirkinian ’07

Chet Forte ’08

Bill France, Jr. ’11

Barry Frank ’09

Frank Gifford ’12

Ed Goren ’12

Curt Gowdy ’08

Sandy Grossman ’15

Jim McKay ’07

Scully ’08

Bob Seiderman ’08

Allan “Bud” Selig ’17

Tom Shelburne ’07

Chester ‘Chet’ Simmons

Jack Simmons ’17

Charles A. Steinberg ’08

Jerry Steinberg ’15

ey Visser ’17

John A. Walsh ’17

Bill Webb ’16

THE MONTAG GROUP CONGRATULATES OUR CLIENTS ON THEIR INDUCTION INTO THE SPORTS BROADCASTING HALL OF FAME

MARY CARILLO BOB COSTAS JIM NANTZ DICK VITALE AS WELL AS THE REST OF THE SPORTS BROADCASTING HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2018

GARY BETTMAN BILL FITTS BUD GREENSPAN PETER LARSSON DAVID MAZZA GENE MIKELL NEAL PILSON

THE MONTAG GROUP TALE NT• STRATE GY• M E D IA