The National Sports Media Association announced its Hall of Fame inductees along with national and local award winners on Monday, and plenty of familiar names are being honored.
Four were announced as NSMA Hall of Fame inductees – ESPN’s Lee Corso, Bill Plaschke of the LA Times, and the late Roger Angell and Dan Kelly. Kelly is the name that readers may not recognize – he was the play by play broadcaster for the St. Louis Blues for 21 years, the lead voice of NHL coverage on CBS, and called 16 Stanley Cup Finals during his career prior to his death in 1989.
Ian Eagle of CBS was recognized as the National Sportscaster of the Year for the first time following five wins as the New York Sportscaster of the Year. Last year’s winners were Ernie Johnson of Turner Sports and ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and ESPN’s Pete Thamel shared the Sportswriter of the Year award, the first time each has won the honor. Rosenthal previously won the Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award five times. Last year’s winner was ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Over 100 people were awarded Sportscaster or Sportswriter of the Year at the state level. I’m not going to go through the whole list (which you can check out on the NSMA’s site), but The Athletic and Bally Sports came away with top honors. Including Rosenthal, writers for The Athletic came away with 14 awards, up from eight last year. Six broadcasters for Bally Sports RSNs claimed awards, up from five a year ago.
[NSMA, photo via NSMA]
