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The American Sportscasters Association (ASA) was founded in 1979 by broadcaster Dick London (Hanna) and associate attorney Harold Foner as a non-profit association to represent sportscasters by promoting and supporting the needs and interests of the professional sports broadcaster. [1]
In 1980, Louis O. Schwartz was asked to revitalize the association by founders Dick London (award-winning broadcast journalist) and (Attorney) Harold Foner and was named executive director. In 1983, a board of directors was established consisting of Jack Brickhouse, Don Dunphy, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy and Schwartz. Enberg was elected as chairman and Schwartz as president.
In 1974, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn's office asked founder, Dick London, to form the Baseball Broadcasters Association of America. This was accomplished with the help of Joe Rickler and Monti Irvin from the Commissioner's Office. A few years later he formed the American Sportscasters Association, the umbrella organization for all sportscasters. After his retirement in 2000, Dick continued to perform on radio and TV. For two years he co-hosted a Sunday pre-game sports show covering all NFL games on KDUS Radio, Phoenix, the voice of the Arizona Cardinals, as well as weekly news and commentary. He also moderated the panel show "Air It Out With The Bad Boys" until the spring of 2008. Since 2008, Dick has been off the mic writing books, including "A Peaceful War," a modern historical novel, and others about his life experiences.
Dick London's career as a print, radio and television broadcast journalist spanned 46 years. In the military, he was the public relations representative for President Eisenhower's Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief. He received the First Army Award for humanitarian and outstanding service. He was a regular guest on NBC-Monitor, ABC, CBS, BBC and Radio Free Europe. He also produced a military Christmas show with singer Steve Lawrence on WNDT-TV in New York City. After the military, he was the TV News Anchor for a CBS-TV affiliate in Pennsylvania. That was followed by news anchor positions on WWRL/WRFM in New York City, where he became News and Sports Director before WRFM was sold to Bonneville. WWRL was the nation's number one R&B station. Under his leadership, the news team won several civic and national journalism awards including the prestigious Peabody. In 1976, one of the world's top survey organizations, The Lou Harris Company, said Dick's leadership position in New York State made his opinion particularly important to us. Other credits include his nightly half-hour world news round-up on WNYW, the CBS international affiliate, and his news anchor position at WNBC. Dick wrote many articles on social issues for religious organizations, including The National Catholic Register, The American Baptist Educational Ministries and the National Council of Churches. Dick has post Graduate Degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Media from CUNY, and NYU (Gallatin Division).
In 1984, Schwartz established the ASA Hall of Fame to honor those who have achieved excellence in the field of sports broadcasting. [2] Inductees include:
In 1987, the association established an International Hall of Fame. Its first inductee was Masao Hazama, one of Japan's first television sports broadcasters. Other inductees include BBC Sport boxing correspondent Harry Carpenter (1989) and Song Shixiong, sports commentator for China Central Television (CCTV) for over 30 years (1995).
A "Sportscaster of the Year" award has also been given to top sportscasters, including Marv Albert, Chris Berman, Bob Costas, John Madden and Al Michaels.
The association has also recognized sports greats and other notable individuals who have influenced society and the world of sports, including Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Joe DiMaggio, Larry King, Henry Kissinger, LeRoy Neiman, and U.S. President Ronald Reagan
It has had fourteen Hall of Fame dinners with over 500 attendees at each one.
As of 2016 [update] , its board of directors included Enberg, Jon Miller, Jim Nantz, Schwartz and Bill Walton.
Marv Albert is an American former sportscaster. Honored for his work by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball". From 1967 to 2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks". Albert worked for Turner Sports as the lead announcer for NBA games on TNT.
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Curtis Edward Gowdy was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s. He coined the nickname "The Granddaddy of Them All" for the Rose Bowl Game, taking the moniker from the Cheyenne Frontier Days in his native Wyoming.
Richard Alan Enberg was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including NBC (1975–1999), CBS (2000–2014), and ESPN (2004–2011), as well as for individual teams, such as UCLA Bruins basketball, Los Angeles Rams football, and California Angels and San Diego Padres baseball.
John Beasley Brickhouse was an American sportscaster. Known primarily for his play-by-play coverage of Chicago Cubs games on WGN-TV from 1948 to 1981, he received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983. In 1985, Brickhouse was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame along with the Voice of the Yankees Mel Allen and Red Sox Voice Curt Gowdy. Brickhouse served as the organization's Secretary/Treasurer and was a member of its board of directors.
James William Nantz III is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA, and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has anchored CBS's coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989 and been the lead play-by-play announcer on CBS's NFL coverage since 2004. He was also the lead broadcaster for the NCAA men's basketball tournament from 1990 to 2023.
Greg Gumbel is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports. The older brother of news and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, he became the first African-American announcer to call play-by-play of a major sports championship in the United States when he announced Super Bowl XXXV for the CBS network in 2001. Gumbel is currently the studio host for CBS' men's college basketball coverage and was a play-by-play broadcaster for the NFL on CBS until 2023.
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John Francis Whitaker was an American sportscaster who worked for both CBS and ABC. Whitaker was a decorated army veteran of World War II. He fought in the Normandy Campaign and was wounded by an artillery strike.
Don Dunphy was an American television and radio sports announcer specializing in boxing broadcasts. Dunphy was noted for his fast-paced delivery and enthusiasm for the sport. It is estimated that he did "blow-by-blow" action for over 2,000 fights, including historic bouts like the 1971 Fight of the Century between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The Friday Night Fights were broadcast every Friday evening from (radio and television 9 P.M. to 10:45 P.M on ABC.
James Shores Simpson was an American sportscaster, known for his smooth delivery as a play-by-play man and his versatility in covering many different sports. In 1997, he won the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2000 he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
WAER is a radio station in Syracuse, New York. It is located on the campus of Syracuse University, and is a part of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. The station features a jazz music and National Public Radio format, with a news, Syracuse Orange play-by-play, and music staff providing programming around the clock.
The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS).
College Basketball on NBC Sports is the de facto branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I men's college basketball games produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States. The NBC network broadcast college basketball games in some shape or form between 1969 and 1998. From 1969 to 1981, NBC covered the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. It became the first major network to broadcast the championship game, at a cost of more than US$500,000 in 1969.
The Curt Gowdy Media Award is an annual award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to outstanding basketball writers and broadcasters. It is named for American sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who was the Hall of Fame's president for seven years.
Jeff Phelps is a Cleveland, Ohio sportscaster who currently works as the television pregame/postgame host for Cleveland Cavaliers telecasts on Fox Sports Ohio, the pregame/postgame host for Cleveland Browns radio broadcasts, and is a midday co-host on WKRK-FM in Cleveland.
During the early 1960s, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during prime time that could be viewed by a greater television audience. An early bid by the league in 1964 to play on Friday nights was soundly defeated, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at high school football games. Undaunted, Rozelle decided to experiment with the concept of playing on Monday night, scheduling the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for a game on September 28, 1964. While the game was not televised, it drew a sellout crowd of 59,203 spectators to Tiger Stadium, the largest crowd ever to watch a professional football game in Detroit up to that point.
NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.
A Peaceful War by Dick London and Winston Hodge - https://www.amazon.com/Peaceful-War-Winston-Hodge-ebook/dp/B008Y5J4QE A Peaceful War (audio book) by Richard Hanna (Dick "Hanna" London) - https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/a-peaceful-war-unabridged/id582862842
Dick London News Director for WWRL 1600 NY, NY - http://www.las-solanas.com/arsa/surveys_item.php?svid=2357