Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame

Chris Berman, Stan Honey, Brent Musburger, Bill Raftery, Linda Rheinstein, Bud Selig, Jack Simmons, Lesley Visser, John A. Walsh and Michael Weisman will be honored in December at a New York ceremony.

The sports broadcasting industry came together 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. The new honorees are Mike Pearl, Dick Button, Pat Sullivan, Sandy Grossman, Fred Aldous, Ted Turner, Jerry Steinberg and Marv Albert.

Al Michaels, Scotty Connal, Barry Johnstone, Howard Katz, Chuck Pagano, Joe Schiavo and Mickey Wittman will be honored on Dec. 17 in a ceremony in New York City .

During more than four decades at NBC, Cory Leible revolutionized the use of the handheld camera on everything from NFL sidelines to U.S. Open putting greens to presidential inaugurations. He elevated the role of the handheld operator to an art form, offering viewers a new perspective for watching live sports.

Jack Whitaker’s television style, as it was exhibited on CBS and ABC from 1961 to 1995, certainly wasn’t slick, it was sophisticated and smart. He had style, which is why today, his admirers say he stands apart as one of the most accomplished of television’s early generation of wordsmiths, not so much an announcer, but as an essayist who dared to be poetic when just clever would do.

Prior to becoming president, Bodenheimer was responsible for affiliate sales, advertising sales, marketing, and research for all of ESPN’s domestic networks, a career path that began with his applying for a job as an affiliate sales representative in Texas.

As commissioner of the NFL from 1989 to 2006, Paul Tagliabue negotiated TV contracts that made already rich NFL owners even richer, let Fox into the game and, in 2003, put the NFL in the cable business, with its own NFL Network.