Another Hall for Scully
Last December, we wrote about the formation of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, created by CBS executive Ken Aagaard for the Sports Video Group (linked here), which focused not so much on those behind the mike, but many behind the scenes that didn't get proper recognition.
For example, the inaugural 11 in the class of 2007 included George Wensel, Tom Shelburne, Larry Thorpe and Julius Barnathan -- and we're guessing you have no idea what they did. Look 'em up.
So when the Class of '08 was announced this week, and included Dodgers' Baseball Hall of Famer Vin Scully, as well as those more well known such as Curt Gowdy, Chet Forte and Don Ohlmeyer, it's really the inclusion of Marvin Bader, Ted Nathanson, Val Pinchbeck, Bob Seiderman and Charlie Steinberg that makes Aagaard most proud.
A group of 80 from the industry pick honorees in seven categories: management, production, technical operations, engineering, leagues and teams, manufacturers and vendors, and on-air talent. Pretty much in that order of importance.
They'll all be recognized at a ceremony in New York in mid December in a production put on by the Sports Video Group (linked here).
For those lesser-known names:
=Bader was responsible for all the production services during ABC's three-decade string of Olympics coverage (1960s, '70s, and '80s) as the vice president of ABC Sports' Olympics Operations. He oversaw the host-broadcast feed of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
==Nathanson oversaw some of the greatest TV moments in sports history during his career as a director at NBC. For his work, he garnered an Emmy Award and the first Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports Television (1991).
==Pinchbeck was the long-time NFL executive and one of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle's chief advisors, the head of the league's broadcasting for more than two decades, he served as a liaison on television and radio with the 30 NFL teams and with the various networks that broadcast games.
==Seiderman, winner of four Emmys, was a technical wizard who took the sports audio experience from a secondary position behind video to an equal one. While at CBS Sports and Fox Sports, Seiderman defined the aural landscape of everything from NASCAR to the NFL.
==Steinberg oversaw the development of some of the most important production tools for sportscasters, including instant-replay systems in the late 1960s and, three decades later, HDTV.
And those you may have heard of before:
==Forte was the first director of ABC's Monday Night Football in 1970, redefining NFL coverage in the process. L.A. sports fans will remember him doing a sports-talk show at then AM-690 before his passing.
==Gowdy's 34-year career included broadcasting 13 World Series, nine Super Bowls, 14 Rose Bowls, eight Olympic Games and 24 NCAA Final Fours, not to mention co-creating and producing Wide World of Sports and working on American Sportsman.
==Ohlmeyer produced and directed three Olympic Games for ABC, produced Monday Night Football and Wide World of Sports, and then went to NBC as president of the West Coast division from 1993 to '99.
The first inductees in '07 also had Roone Arledge, Frank Chirkinian, Howard Cosell, Harry Coyle, Jim McKay, Pete Rozelle and Ed Sabol.
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