May 10th, marked the fifth annual WFUV Gala. The event took place in New York City at Gotham Hall.
Al Michaels, this year's winner of the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting, was unable to attend and asked Bob Costas to accept the award on his behalf.
Bob was kind enough to sit down with me and discuss Al, WFUV, and what becoming a broadcaster today is all about.
Last Thursday night WFUV’s annual Gala honored one of the greats in the sports broadcasting industry as Al Michaels received the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award. Michaels joins Scully, Dick Enberg, Ernie Harwell, and Pat Summerall in the exclusive club.
“Al Michaels is the greatest play-by-play broadcaster who has ever lived.” That distinction was provided by Drew Esocoff, director of NBC Sunday Night Football, in one of nine interviews conducted in the making of Al Michaels: Seizing The Moment. Over the past 40 years, Michaels has been the lyricist of many of the greatest American sports moments.
At the 2008 Olympics in Bejing, Ethiopia brought home seven medals from long distance running events. Director Jerry Rothwell points to one specific area of the African nation that has had tremendous success at producing Olympic champions. The small village of Bekoji, the birthplace of 2008 gold medalists Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, is an area which focuses on one activity more than anything else: running.
With so many basketball films out there, does the world really need another one? Yes, it does. Benji looks back at 1984’s number one high school baller in the United States: Ben Wilson. The Chicago teenager represents hope and potential for a city that struggles with violence and drugs. Directors Coodie and Chike, who have put together music videos for the likes of Kanye West and Christina Aguilera, intertwine the Midwest metropolis with the life of the young Wilson.
The knuckleball pitch has been present in Major League Baseball since 1907, and yet it’s been championed by only an historic handful. Now over a century old, the spin-less baseball’s legacy rests in the fate of one current pitcher, New York Mets hurler R.A. Dickey, the last remaining major league player to contain it in his arsenal.
Magic Johnson was extremely talented in his profession. He was also boisterous and outgoing both on and off the court. Luckily, Kevin Daniels, the Broadway star playing Magic in the new play, has both of these qualities. I got the chance to talk to Kevin about his extraordinary experience playing one of the most revered basketball players of all-time. How did he prepare for this daunting role? What was it like to play someone that so many people grew up watching?
Earlier this week, it was Bob Ahrens' 75th birthday. Bob is the Exceutive Sports Producer here at WFUV. In spirit of such ocassion, I had to do something special, so I rounded up some of the famed station alums that had been brought up under his guidance. Tony Reali (Host of Around the Horn on ESPN), Andrew Bogusch (Host on Sirius XM), Connell McShane (Imus in the Morning and Fox Business Network), Mike Yam (Host on ESPN), and Ryan Ruocco (Host of Ruocco & Lundberg on ESPN New York) joined in on the fun to wish him a happy birthday.
Magic/Bird, the new Broadway play opening April 11th at the Longacre Theater, chronicles the side-by-side journey of two of basketball’s biggest pioneers, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The team that created Lombardi, Producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser, Director Thomas Kail, and Writer Eric Simonson, all reunite to form another sports themed play about players who transcended their sport. In this case, they move from the gridiron to the hardwood and the transition is seamless.
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