Indiana Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association 2013 Hall of Fame class

The Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association is proud to announce its 2013 Hall of Fame class. These five outstanding sportswriters and sportscasters will be inducted in a ceremony on Saturday, April 13, 2013 at the Wyndham Hotel near the Indianapolis International Airport.

This will be the 17th Hall of Fame class inducted by the ISSA.

The five Hall of Fame inductees are:

· Mark Boyle: The radio voice of the Indiana Pacers since 1988, Boyle has become an institution in Central Indiana. His calls of the Pacers’ deep playoff runs in the 1990s and 2000s are still some of the most-remembered moments in the team’s history. Boyle has also covered the Minnesota North Stars and has spent his summers covering minor-league baseball.

· Mike Emrick: The voice of hockey in the United States for many years, Emrick has been the lead play-by-play announcer for the NHL games NBC since 2005, and has also filled the same role for Fox and ESPN. He has worked seven Olympic Games for NBC, CBS and TNT, and was also for many years the lead television play-by-play voice of the New Jersey Devils. “Doc” Emrick is a native of LaFontaine, Indiana, and graduated from Manchester College. He returned to Indiana this fall to work a Fort Wayne Komets game with Bob Chase on WOWO. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and has been awarded the Lester Patrick Award by the NHL for service to hockey.

· Andy Graham: Longtime sportswriter for the Bloomington Herald-Times, Graham has covered high school and Indiana University sports for the newspaper. He is currently in his second stint as a sportswriter for the H-T.

· *Bill Robertson: Sportswriter for the Evansville Press from the 1930s through the 1970s, and before that, with the Boonville Standard. The “Bard of Boonville” covered high school and college sports in Evansville. He is a member of the Indiana basketball and football Halls of Fame, as well as the University of Evansville Hall of Fame.

· Ben Smith: Columnist for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. Smith has been a part of the J-G staff since 1986 and a sportswriter in Indiana since graduating from Ball State in 1977. He has covered 27 Indianapolis 500s, 18 Brickyard 400s, several Final Fours, Super Bowls, the Pan-Am Games and several college football bowl games and golf majors. He has been recognized by the HSPA, SPJ, Indiana AP Managing Editors and APSE, as well as being the ISSA’s Sportswriter of the Year.

In addition, the ISSA annually honors several award winners. This year, they are:

· Marv Bates Sportscaster of the Year: Rob Weaver, WPGW-Portland

· Corky Lamm Indiana Sportswriter of the Year: Dan Korb, Evansville Courier & Press

· Bob Williams Helping Hand Award: Chris Kaufman, IHSAA

· Distinguished Service Award: *Len Davis, Fort Wayne

*-Posthumous honoree

The Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, since 1946, has served to honor the top sportswriters and sportscasters in Indiana. On the association’s 50th anniversary, it began the ISSA Hall of Fame to further honor our top journalists. The ISSA’s online home can be found at http://www.indianassa.org.

 

Pretty distinguished class. Only perhaps the best play-by-play guy in any sport (Emrick) and one of the NBA's top play-by-play guys. Not to mention three others who have clearly accomplished a lot in their careers.

 

Are Blake Sebring and Reggie Hayes in this HOF? If not, they should be.

 

Jesus. I'm getting to the point where colleagues are becoming eligible. I now know how rock bands feel when they hit that 25-year mark. Congrats to all of the new members.

 

They haven't been inducted yet .

 

Unfortunately. Hopefully, that won't be the case in a few weeks.

 

Ben Smith is very deserving. Good guy, too.