Sports%20Broadcasting%20Hall%20of%20Fame
Wednesday, December 16, 20152015 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame CeremonyThe sports-broadcasting industry came together as family once again at the New York Hilton Midtown on Dec. 15, when the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inducted eight icons who have each left an indelible mark on the business. Hosted by ESPN’s Mike Tirico, the ceremony elicited both laughter and tears, as peers, friends, and families honored the inductees. All table sales, totaling more than $150,000 this year, will once again be donated to the Sports Broadcasting Fund, which supports industry members in times of need.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Mike PearlThe evening began with the induction of Mike Pearl, a 16-time Emmy winner who produced some of the most memorable sports telecasts of all time and became one of the most influential sports-production executives in four-plus decades at CBS Sports, ABC Sports, ESPN, and Turner Sports. With a keen eye for on-air talent and studio programming, he also helped launch two of the most successful sports studio shows ever: The NFL Today on CBS in the late 1970s and Inside the NBA on TNT two decades later.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Dick ButtonNext up was Dick Button, the definitive voice of figure skating for more than 50 years. During ABC’s coverage of figure-skating events in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, he became the sport’s best-known analyst, mostly thanks to his frank, often caustic appraisal of skaters’ performances. Button was a two-time Olympic gold medalist, in 1948 and 1952, before entering the broadcast booth and changing the trajectory of figure skating on television.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Pat SullivanWhen it comes to careers in sports, it is safe to say that few people have worked in as many aspects of the business as Pat Sullivan, president and founder of Game Creek Video, a company that, over the past 20 years, has become one of the industry’s leading production-services providers and innovators. Sullivan has grown Game Creek Video from a fledgling two-truck, six-employee operation into a 46-truck fleet with 149 employees that services the largest sports shows in the industry. Previously, he served as general manager of the New England Patriots, from 1983 to 1991, during which time the Patriots won the AFC Championship and appeared in Super Bowl XX.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Sandy GrossmanSandy Grossman’s numbers as a live-sports director speak for themselves: 10 Super Bowls (a likely unbreakable record), 18 NBA Finals, five Stanley Cup Finals, eight Sports Emmy Awards, and two Olympics. However, he was perhaps best-known as the lead director for NFL games at both CBS Sports and Fox Sports during more than two decades with Hall of Famers Pat Summerall and John Madden and with producer Bob Stenner beside him at the front bench. Grossman, who died in 2014, was honored by his son Dean Grossman at the ceremony.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Fred AldousA staple in network broadcast audio for two decades, Fred Aldous has garnered 23 Emmy awards while working for all the major networks and mixing practically every type of sports event there is. An audio mixer for Fox Sports since its inception in 1994 and the network’s senior mixer since 1998, he is an advocate and pioneer of discrete surround sound in sports and has drastically changed the way fans listen to live sports audio, especially NASCAR and the NFL.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Ted TurnerFew individuals have had a greater impact on television and how billions of individuals see the world than Ted Turner. Wildly ambitious and plainspoken, he is one of the most influential media moguls of the 20th century and has left an indelible mark on nearly every aspect of the sports-TV landscape, He took on the television establishment and led the charge that made cable TV the power it became, founding TBS and the nation’s first “superstation” and launching the first 24-hour cable news network. Atlanta Braves Chairman Emeritus Bill Bartholomay, a close friend of Turner’s, accepted on his behalf at the ceremony.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Jerry SteinbergReferred to as “The Godfather” by his Fox Sports colleagues, Jerry Steinberg is an icon of remote sports production. Logging stints at ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, and Fox during his 35-plus–year career, he was an original member of two startup teams: the ones responsible for launching ESPN in 1979 and Fox Sports in 1994. At Fox Sports, he helped oversee a number of technical innovations, including the first-and-10 marker on NFL games, more-expansive coverage of NASCAR racing and MLB games, and the transition from SD to HD.Wednesday, December 16, 2015Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2015: Marv AlbertMarv Albert, one of the most iconic voices ever to enter the broadcast booth. He has called eight Super Bowls, 12 NBA Finals, eight Stanley Cup Finals, and four Olympic Games on television and radio. His more than four decades behind the mic include 20-plus years at NBC Sports (1977-97 and 2000-02), 37 years calling New York Knicks and Ranger games, 17 years (and counting) calling NBA games for TNT, and plenty of baseball, boxing, and NFL football work. In addition to the NBA on TNT, he now calls NCAA Tournament action for Turner Sports and CBS as well as play-by-play for the NFL on CBS. To put it simply, as host Mike Tirico put it regarding his idol, “Nobody brings an event to life like Marv Albert does.”