Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2024

Ceremony set to honor 10 legends on December 17 in New York City

The Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the inductees of the Class of 2024, comprised of 10 industry legends who have played a major role in moving the sports broadcast industry forward, both in front of and behind the camera. They will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on December 17, 2024, at a ceremony that will be held at the New York Hilton Hotel in Manhattan. 

This year’s 10 inductees continue an 18-year tradition of honoring excellence across a wide range of disciplines. They are: Mark Lazarus, chairman of the NBCUniversal Media Group, who has forged deals with the Olympics, NFL, NBA, and more; Bryant Gumbel, one of the most respected hosts and broadcasters ever; fearless and legendary reporter Andrea Kremer; longtime NBA analyst Hubie Brown, who — at 91 — is going strong; the late, great Chris Mortensen who transformed the nature of NFL reporting; NBC Sports producer Tommy Roy, who has won 29 Emmys for NBA, NFL, golf, and Olympics coverage; Phil Garvin, who began Mobile TV Group, one of the largest remote production companies on the planet and also co-founded HDNet in 2001; Steve Gorsuch, who helped take US Open and golf coverage into the HDTV era; Charlie Carlucci, whose career in graphics production is defined by innovation and excellence; and Jim Delaney, former Big Ten commissioner who launched the Big Ten Network and made the conference a national force on TV from 1989-2020.

Each year, more than 150 industry professionals, including past inductees and executives representing all major organizations and disciplines in the industry, cast votes to ultimately decide the class.

“We’re excited and looking forward to another wonderful evening on December 17 when we get together and celebrate these exceptional leaders, their contributions, and their legacy,” says Ken Aagaard, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Chairman.

This year’s ceremony will also support the SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund, the industry’s only charity designed to help sports production professionals who find themselves in financial need due to illness, disaster, or injury. Each year, the Fund supports dozens of industry freelancers and others with financial support during difficult times and 100% of all ticket and table sales are donated to the Fund.

The ceremony will be held on December 17, 2024, at the New York Hilton Hotel. It will begin with a reception at 5:00 p.m. ET, followed by a dinner at 6:30 p.m. The ceremony will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET.

For more information on purchasing tickets to this year’s ceremony, please visit www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org and to donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund visit www.sportsbroadcastfund.org.

Below is more detail about this year’s inductees: 

Hubie Brown: One of the greatest NBA analysts of all time, Hubie Brown has the unique gift of being an ex-coach who brings not only knowledge but also dynamic enthusiasm to his role as analyst. For 50 years, he has been involved with the NBA as either a coach or broadcaster. He called the NBA Final for ABC in 2005 and 2006 and then for ESPN radio from 2007-19. Including television and radio across networks, Brown has called a record 18 NBA Finals.

Charlie Carlucci: Charlie Carlucci worked for CBS Sports for 36 years, beginning with the network in 1980. He changed the very nature of graphics creation, and his graphics work helped shape the live production of six Super Bowls, 35 Masters Tournaments, 25 PGA Championships, 34 March Madness tournaments, and much more.

Jim Delany: Jim Delany was an historic leader in college athletics for more than 40 years, serving as commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference for 10 years and then the Big Ten Conference for 31 years during significant periods of transformation and growth. During his 41-year tenure, Delany led negotiations on behalf of the Big Ten, NCAA, and CFP with all major television networks resulting in rights fees totaling more than $30 billion. The Big Ten Conference saw unprecedented levels of national television coverage during Delany’s tenure, highlighted by the creation of the Big Ten Network in 2007. In July 2024, the Big Ten Network officially dedicated Studio D to Delany and named it in his honor.

Phil Garvin: Fifty years ago, Phil Garvin launched Colorado Studios, providing a foundation that would later lead to the launch of Mobile TV Group in 1994 and also HDNet in 2001. An author, photographer, producer, director, and industry leader, Garvin’s efforts have resulted in a company that today produces more than 4,000 live events every year, including over half of all MLB, NHL, and NBA regular season games. And his work at HDNet alongside Mark Cuban gave the HD movement its first dedicated HD network at a time when the fledgling format needed all the support it could get.

Steve Gorsuch: For more than 40 years, Steve Gorsuch transformed coverage of golf events for CBS Sports as well as US Open tennis where he would spend 15 years taking that event to the next level from a production and operations standpoint. Gorsuch had a career that saw him do everything from being a great cameraman (capturing Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths and Dwight Clark’s famous “The Catch”) to being a technical director, to managing the operations side for some of the biggest events in the country. His ability to handle both the technical directing and management roles at the same time for an event blazed a trail for future sports production professionals.

Bryant Gumbel: Over a television career that spanned more than half a century, Bryant Gumbel became one of television’s most visible and accomplished broadcasters. After beginning his television career in 1972 at KNBC in Los Angeles, Gumbel moved on to NBC Sports where he worked from the fall of 1975 until the winter of 1982. During that time, he served as the host of virtually all of NBC’s primary sports programs and championship events, including major league baseball, for which he hosted the World Series for seven years; the National Football League, for which he hosted four Super Bowls; and the NCAA basketball championships, for which he hosted five championships. In 1982, Gumbel was named as the host of NBC’s flagship TODAY program and went on to host that show for 15 years, longer than anyone in the program’s history. From 1995 until the end of 2023, Gumbel hosted REALSPORTS with Bryant Gumbel for HBO, a monthly, magazine-style program that explored issues, controversies, and personalities in the world of sports, raising the bar for sports journalism and winning more than 30 Sports Emmy Awards.

Andrea Kremer: Andrea Kremer is one of the most accomplished and widely respected journalists in the industry today. A recipient of multiple Emmys and a Peabody, Kremer is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame. Acclaimed for her long-form journalism and storytelling prowess, Kremer has held prestigious roles at NFL Network, HBO, Amazon Prime Video, CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports, and ESPN, among others. She has worked on more than 30 Super Bowls, NBA Finals, Summer and Winter Olympic Games, MLB All-Star Games and League Championship Series, NCAA football bowl games, NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and Finals, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and the PGA Championship. Named one of the greatest female sportscasters of all time, Kremer made history as NFL Films’ first female producer; ESPN’s first female correspondent; and the first full-time female NFL game analyst, for Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football.

Mark Lazarus: Mark Lazarus’ career in sports media has spanned more than three decades, over which time he has helped shepherd the industry through the changing media landscape as well as been a key player in landmark sports rights deals as president of sports at two major media companies, Turner Broadcasting and NBCUniversal.   Currently, Lazarus is Chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group where he oversees the company’s TV and Streaming platforms, distribution, and monetization. His purview includes television networks — NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen True Crime, SYFY, USA Network, Universal Kids — as well as NBC Sports, affiliate relations, content distribution advertising sales, international networks, and the Direct-to-Consumer business, which includes NBCU’s streaming service Peacock. Under Lazarus’ leadership, the company has forged new deals with the Olympics, NBA, NFL, PGA Tour, Big 10, NASCAR and the Premier League among many other partnerships. Lazarus has overseen seven Olympics, including this summer’s landmark Paris Games, which led to record-breaking engagement and cross-platform viewership. Throughout his 14 year tenure at NBCU Lazarus has held a variety of roles, including Chairman of NBC Sports and, most recently, Chairman of NBCUniversal Television & Streaming. Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Lazarus was President of Media and Marketing at CSE. He also spent nearly two decades at Turner Broadcasting where he served as President of Entertainment and Sports from 2003-08 following a stint as President of Turner Sports from 1999-03, during which time Lazarus oversaw key sports rights deals including Wimbledon, NBA, MLB NASCAR, R&A, and PGA America.

Chris Mortensen: When Mortensen joined ESPN in 1991 as a regular contributor to the network’s NFL shows and SportsCenter, he quickly became known as one of the ultimate NFL insiders, capable of getting the type of breaking news that made ESPN a must watch for not only NFL hardcore fans but also those who worked for NFL teams, whether in the front office or on the field. In 2016, he received the Pro Football Writers of America’s Dick McCann Award and was honored during the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s enshrinement ceremony in August that year.

Tommy Roy: Tommy Roy started his career at NBC in 1981 as a production assistant and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Executive Producer of NBC Sports for 12 years. A winner of 29 Emmy Awards, Roy was the original producer of the iconic NBA on NBC, which included the coverage of Michael Jordan and the Bulls’ first three championships. He has worked on seven Super Bowls, serving as Executive Producer on three, including the game telecast for Super Bowl XXXII when John Elway and the Denver Broncos finally won the title. At the Olympics, he produced the coverage of basketball’s original Dream Team, and he has produced the swimming coverage of every medal-winning race by Michael Phelps, highlighted by his incredible eight gold medals at the Beijing Games. Today, he is best known for his work in golf, where he has produced 25 US Opens, eight British Opens, every Ryder Cup since 1993, and scores of PGA Tour and LPGA events. As Executive Producer, he oversaw the coverage of tennis’ French Open and Wimbledon; horseracing’s Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont; and NASCAR’s Daytona 500.

For press information, please contact Ken Kerschbaumer at [email protected]

For more information on purchasing tickets to this year’s ceremony, please visit www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org or contact Carrie Bowden at [email protected]

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Rob Payne at [email protected]