Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association Announces 24th Annual Awards

by | Feb 11, 2019 | Featured, Headlines, RRSN News | 0 comments

CLASS OF 2019 MEDIA RELEASE

 

For the 24th year, the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association is pleased to announce its incoming Hall of Fame Class, set to be inducted at its annual awards banquet to be held on Sunday, April 7th at Valle Vista Country Club in Greenwood.

This year’s class includes the following people who have graced Hoosier newspapers, radio stations and television airwaves over the past several decades. The inductees are as follows:

* Gordon Engelhardt, Evansville Courier & Press _ After graduating from Southern Illinois University in 1979, Gordon has called Evansville home since 1984. His sports coverage over the years has ranged from all things college basketball, such as the Final Four and the Elite Eight at the Division II level, to the IHSAA state finals. He’s also covered the Thunder on the Ohio hydroplane boat race for more than 20 years.

* Chuck Freeby, WHME South Bend _​ Chuck is a 1986 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has been a voice of various levels of sports in the area since that time. For 17 years, he covered high school sports for WNDU-TV. For the past 15 years, Chuck has served as the Sports Director of WHME-TV, handling play-by-play duties for the high school game of the week, as well as serving as the voice of Notre Dame baseball on WHME radio. Chuck was named the ISSA’s Marv Bates Sportscaster of the Year in 2017.

 * Mike Haynes, former voice of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche _ Mike got his start calling Butler University football and basketball games while a student there in the early 80s, and then began his professional career at WCVL radio in Crawfordsville. Haynes moved to Arizona to pursue his dream of calling hockey professionally in 1988. He had moved to Denver to broadcast minor league hockey when the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver to become the Avalanche in 1995. Mike spent 23 years as the radio or TV voice of the team.

 * Robin Miller, NBCSN, formerly of the Indianapolis Star _ Robin began writing for the Star at the age of 18, and he spent his formative years as a writer travelling with the ABA Indiana Pacers. Miller also raced sprint cars and worked for Indy 500 crews while chronicling various forms of motorsports over the years in Indy. Robin became a columnist for the Star in 1987. After leaving the Star in 2001, Miller worked for both ESPN and Speed TV, covering IndyCar racing. In addition to his TV work for NBCSN, Robin currently writes for Racer Magazine and Racer.com.

* Rita Price, WRSW Warsaw _ Rita has been on the WRSW airwaves in Warsaw for nearly six decades, and she has spent 46 years covering local sports for the station. Rita is already a member of the Indiana Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2017, she celebrated her 75th birthday by broadcasting 75 games on WRSW: 10 football games and 65 basketball games.

* Art Saltsberg, WOWO Fort Wayne _ Art co-hosted the evening sports talk program on WOWO from 1985 to 2000. He also served as the play-by-play voice for high school sports on WOWO for a large portion of the 1970s.These days, Art serves as the color analyst for Purdue-Fort Wayne basketball on WOWO’s sister station, ESPN 1380.

In addition to these new Hall of Famers, the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association will recognize winners of the following annual awards _ the Marv Bates Sportscaster of the Year, the Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year, The Ron Lemasters Lifetime Achievement Award and the Bob Williams Helping Hand Award.

This year’s winners are as follows:

* Marv Bates Sportscaster of the Year: Rick Semmler, WTHI Terre Haute _ Rick has been the Sports Director of WTHI-TV for nearly a decade, and he has been covering sports in the Wabash Valley for 16 years in total. His passion for high school sports is on display with the level of coverage he gives to schools in the Terre Haute viewing area, including both those from Indiana and Illinois. Rick has previously won the IHSAA Distinguished Media Service Award, a Spectrum Award from the Indiana Broadcasters Association and three local Emmy awards.

* Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year:  Mike Carmin, Lafayette Journal & Courier _ Mike has now been a fixture in Lafayette for 30 years. He began his career as a freelance reporter covering high school sports and Purdue women’s hoops, which led him to follow the team on its way to the national championship in 1999. Mike’s coverage of that team won a national award from Gannett. For nine of the past 10 seasons, he’s been the beat reporter for Purdue football and women’s basketball for the Journal & Courier.

 * Ron Lemasters Lifetime Achievement Award: Steve Fields, formerly of the Greencastle Banner-Graphic _ Steve has been writing about Hoosier athletes since 1974 at a variety of stops, but he is best known for his time as the sports editor of the Greencastle Banner Graphic for all but two years from 1978 to 1999. Since 2000, Steve has been a correspondent for the Terre Haute Tribune-Star. Steve was named the Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year in 1996. He served as the president of the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association for a total of five years over two different stints.

 * Bob Williams Helping Hand Award: Mike Skvara, ESPN 97.7 The Ref _ Mike has served as both a member of the media and as someone who has assisted the media during a career that has spanned four decades. Mike has called the Evansville area home for 30 years, and has assisted the Evansville Memorial High School football program during that time. However, he also has served as a media coordinator for 34 of the past 36 IHSAA football State Finals, as well as in that same role for more than 50 boys and girls basketball State Finals. During the football season, Mike serves as the color analyst for high school football coverage on WREF in the Evansville area.

 

These 10 honorees will be recognized at the association’s annual banquet on April 7th, which begins at 2 p.m. at Valle Vista Country Club in Greenwood. Tickets are available, with meal included, for $30. To order tickets, send a check for $30 to Fred Inniger, ISSA Treasurer, 3011 Noble Hawk Drive, Kendallville, IN 46755.

The Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association was founded in 1946. It created its Hall of Fame 50 years later in 1996. With the addition of the Class of 2019 the Hall of Fame will have 117 members.

 

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