9 Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Award nominations; WGAL Hall of Fame (2024)
Pat Principe is an American retired sportscaster. He was known for his 41 years at WGAL as the station's sports director, covering sports around the Susquehanna Valley until his retirement in 2024.[1]
He then moved to the Lancaster/Lebanon area of Pennsylvania in 1982 to work at WLYH as a sportscaster.[2] He then moved to WGAL a year later in 1983, starting as a weekend sports anchor and reporter.[3] In 1990, following the departure of his mentor, sports director and anchor Jim Stone, Principe got his big break when the station promoted him to sports director.[4] In addition, he co-created, produced, and hosted WGAL's Football Friday, the show that still airs every Friday night during high school football season.[5]
On January 4, 2024, after covering his last Penn State Peach Bowl in Florida, PennLive published that Principe would retire from WGAL in April 2024, after 41 years covering sports.[7] He announced his retirement on WGAL in February 2024, to take effect in April. He cited his decision to step away and spend more time with family and also cited the retirements of friends and colleagues, Kim Lemon, Ron Martin, Joe Calhoun, and Mike Hostetler.[8] A day later, PennLive published that Bethany Miller would succeed him after he retires.[9]
In Principe's last week at WGAL, after recounting his career with friends, colleagues, and his successor at WGAL, he retired on April 12, 2024.[10]
Awards and recognition
At his college, where he started his first broadcast job, he was named Sportscaster of the Year in his Senior Year.[citation needed] At WGAL, he was nominated nine times for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Awards.[11][12] Principe also received several Associated Press awards for sports coverage, sportscasts, and Football Friday.[13] He worked in the community participating in community projects like the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, MS Walk, and the Second Mile.[citation needed] He was honored in Florida by the Penn State Peach Bowl for covering Penn State for 33 seasons.[14] Principe was inducted into the WGAL Hall of Fame for his 41 years at WGAL covering sports.[citation needed]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
