This weekend saw both Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson surprised on-air with their Hall of Fame induction news.But the trend may have kicked off last week, when Dan Patrick was given his own National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame news live on the radio.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWuTIEcgYE4While we knew Patrick was one member of the NSMA Hall of Fame class this year, we didn’t yet know the rest of the group. Today, the NSMA announced the full class, which also includes Michael Wilbon and Tom Verducci, in addition to a group of legends.

Dan Patrick (far left in photo), Tom Verducci (far right), and Michael Wilbon (center) have been voted into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame, NSMA executive director Dave Goren announced.Three deceased legends, Skip Caray, Cawood Ledford, and Dick Young will also enter the Hall, the results of the annual vote of the NSMA’s membership.

Along with the Hall of Fame class, we also learned the winners of the NSMA’s 2019 sportscaster of the year and sportswriter of the year, and it’s hard to argue with their selection:

The NSMA will also honor the 2019 national sportscaster of the year, Kevin Harlan, 2019 national sportswriter of the year, Adrian Wojnarowski, and 110 state sportscasters and sportswriters of the year from 49 states, plus the District of Columbia. They will be honored at the 61st annual NSMA awards banquet, June 29, 2020 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Harlan and Woj are certainly at the top of their respective professions. The state honorees include plenty of familiar names as well, including Dave Pasch, Dave Flemming, Jerry Remy, The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli, and more. (The whole list can be found here.)It’s certainly a deserving group of winners, honorees, and inductees all around.[photo credit: NSMA]

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.