BOB WOLFF TO RECEIVE VIN SCULLY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN SPORTS BROADCASTING; PBS NEWSHOUR ANCHORS JUDY WOODRUFF, GWEN IFILL TO RECEIVE CHARLES OSGOOD AWARD FROM WFUV RADIO
***Broadcasters to be honored on November 1st in New York City***
New York, September 19 — The late, legendary sportscaster Bob Wolff, one of the most prolific and recognizable voices in sports broadcast history, has been selected to be the 10th recipient of the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting from WFUV Radio (90.7 FM/wfuv.org), the noncommercial, member-supported public media service of Fordham University for nearly 70 years. Award-winning PBS NewsHour anchors Judy Woodruff and the late Gwen Ifill will receive the Charles Osgood for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.
The Awards will be presented on Wednesday night, November 1, at “On the Record: A Celebration of Achievement in News and Sports Broadcasting,” a benefit for WFUV, in the Costantino Room at Fordham School of Law (150 W. 62nd Street, NYC).
The Scully Award recognizes the iconic baseball broadcaster, who last year completed his 67th and final season as “Voice of the Dodgers” and is a renowned Fordham alumnus (1949). WFUV was the launching pad to his Hall of Fame broadcast career.
The Osgood Award acknowledges the distinguished Fordham/WFUV Radio alumnus (1954) who was the long time, four-time Emmy Award-winning anchor of CBS Sunday Morning, and continues to bring his wit and wisdom to the airwaves with The Osgood File on CBS Radio.
CBS Evening News interim anchor and co-host of CBS This Morning: Saturday Anthony Mason will host an armchair discussion with Rick Wolff, Bob’s son, and Woodruff, reflecting on two extraordinary careers. Alice Gainer, FCRH ’04, CBS 2 reporter and co-anchor for WLNY-TV News, will serve as emcee for the evening.
Before his passing on July 15 at age 96, Mr. Wolff had received the call from Mr. Scully, and was delighted to hear the news. His son Rick Wolff will accept on his behalf. Another distinguished baseball broadcaster, Fordham alumnus (FCRH ’82) and WFUV product, Michael Kay, the television “Voice of the New York Yankees” on YES Network and ESPN NY 98.7 FM Radio host of The Michael Kay Show, will make the presentation on behalf of Mr. Scully and WFUV.
Wolff is credited as the only sportscaster to call the play-by-play of championships in all four major professional team sports – the NFL’s championship, baseball’s World Series, basketball NBA Finals and hockey’s Stanley Cup. He interviewed Babe Ruth, was the original voice of the Washington Senators in 1947, and was the Voice of the New York Knicks for both the franchise’s championship teams.
A special tribute will recognize Bob Ahrens, who recently retired after 20 years of service at WFUV as the station’s executive sports producer.
Exceptional WFUV student broadcasters John Furlong (FCRH ’18) for Sports and Kacie Candela (FCRH ’19) for News will also be among those honored. On the Record is designed to raise funds and elevate awareness with regard to WFUV’s news and sports training programs.
Previous Scully Award recipients include: inaugural honoree Scully (2008), Dick Enberg (2009), Ernie Harwell (2010), Pat Summerall (2011), Al Michaels (2012), Bob Costas (2013), Verne Lundquist (2014), Mike “Doc” Emrick (2015), and Brent Musburger (2016).
Previous Osgood Award recipients include: inaugural honoree Osgood (2008), Jim Lehrer (2009), Bob Schieffer (2010),Tom Brokaw (2011). Christiane Amanpour (2012), Sam Donaldson (2013), Scott Simon (2014), Charlie Rose (2015), and Lesley Stahl (2016).
The two Fordham icons continue to receive plaudits. Scully received The Icon Award at the ESPYs earlier this year, and Osgood will be the recipient of an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in October.
Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is the Anchor and Managing Editor of the PBS NewsHour. She has covered politics and other news for more than four decades at CNN, NBC and PBS.
Gwen Ifill served as moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour until her death in November 2016.
For more information and to purchase tickets, contact Alexis Harrigan at aharrigan@wfuv.org or 212-636-6508.
About WFUV
WFUV (90.7 FM, wfuv.org), New York’s source for music discovery, is a noncommercial, member-supported public media service of Fordham University for nearly 70 years. WFUV has received national recognition for its award-winning weekday format of adult album alternative music, award-winning local news and sports, and a diverse weekend lineup. WFUV’s robust website has extensive audio archives, videos, song playlists, an events calendar, blog and other resources.
About Fordham University
Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition across nine schools. Fordham awards baccalaureate, graduate, and professional degrees to approximately 15,000 students from Fordham College at Rose Hill, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Gabelli School of Business (undergraduate and graduate), the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, the Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences, Education, Religion and Religious Education, and Social Service, and the School of Law. The University has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in West Harrison, N.Y., the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., and the London Centre in the United Kingdom.
About Bob Wolff
Born on November 29, 1920, in New York City, Wolff was cited by the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest consecutive on the air streak for a broadcaster, 78 years in a row, dating back to 1939 on WDNC Radio, when he was a student at Duke University. Earlier this year, Mr. Wolff extended the streak on News 12 Long Island with sports commentary and WHUD Radio in Westchester as the host of the Con Edison Scholastic Sports Award program.
Wolff was the Voice of the New York Knicks for both championship seasons in 1969-70 and 1972-73, the Voice of the New York Rangers for decades, called the only Perfect Game in World Series history when the Yankees’ Don Larsen retired all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers batters that he faced in 1956; and was behind the mic for the “greatest football game ever played,” the Colts overtime victory over the Giants in the N.F.L. Championship in 1958.
Wolff is enshrined in the broadcast wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the National Sportscasters-Sportswriters Hall of Fame, the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame, and in July 2008 was voted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame with the Curt Gowdy Award, joining Curt as the only two sportscasters to be in both the basketball and the baseball halls. Wolff has also been honored by selection to the Hall of Fame of his collegiate fraternity at Duke University- Sigma Nu.
Wolff called Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Gator Bowls, and during his long association with Madison Square Garden Network, college basketball tournaments, The Holiday Festival for 29 years, the National Invitation Tournament for 25 years, the Millrose Games for 32 years, Virginia Slims tennis, women’s college and pro sports, Golden Gloves, college hockey, boxing, bowling, golf, gymnastics, youth football, surfing, horse show jumping, the National Horse Show for 32 years, and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for 33 years.
About Judy Woodruff
For 12 years, Woodruff served as anchor and senior correspondent for CNN, where her duties included anchoring the weekday program, Inside Politics. At PBS from 1983 to 1993, she was the chief Washington correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. From 1984-1990, she also anchored PBS’ award-winning weekly documentary series, Frontline with Judy Woodruff.
In 2011, Woodruff was the principal reporter for the PBS documentary Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime. And in 2007, she completed an extensive project on the views of young Americans called Generation Next: Speak Up. Be Heard. Two hour-long documentaries aired on PBS, along with a series of reports on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR and in USA Today.
From 2006-2013, she anchored a monthly program for Bloomberg Television, Conversations with Judy Woodruff.
At NBC News, Woodruff was White House correspondent from 1977 to 1982. For one year after that she served as NBC’s Today Show Chief Washington Correspondent. She wrote the book, This is Judy Woodruff at the White House, published in 1982 by Addison-Wesley.
Woodruff is a founding co-chair of the International Women’s Media Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting and encouraging women in communication industries worldwide. She serves on the boards of trustee of the Freedom Forum, the Newseum, the Duke Endowment and the Urban Institute. She is a former member of The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.
Judy is a graduate of Duke University, where she is a trustee emerita.
She has been the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcast Journalism/Television, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, just to name two.
About Gwen Ifill
Gwen Ifill served as moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour until her death in November 2016.
Gwen reported on a wide range of issues from foreign affairs to U.S. politics and policies interviewing national and international newsmakers. She covered seven presidential campaigns and moderated two vice presidential debates — in 2004 the debate between Republican Dick Cheney and Democrat John Edwards and in 2008 the debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin.
Each week on Washington Week, Gwen led a robust roundtable discussion with award-winning journalists who provided reporting and analysis of the major stories emanating from the nation’s capital. Now in its 50th year on the air, Washington Week is the longest-running prime-time news and public affairs program on television.
Before coming to PBS in 1999, Gwen was chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a local and national political reporter for The Washington Post. She also reported for the Baltimore Evening Sun and the Boston Herald American. Gwen was also the best-selling author of “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” (Doubleday, 2009).
The John Chancellor Award from the Columbia University School of Journalism and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence from Arizona State University, which she shared with her NewsHour co-anchor Judy Woodruff, were among the many honors that Gwen received during a distinguished career.
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