One of Syracuse University´s and Newhouse´s most illustrious alumnus made his way back to campus on Thursday.
Ian Eagle ´90 received the Marty Glickman Award for Leadership in Sports Media at the Joyce Hergenham Auditorium on Thursday night. Eagle joins Mike Tirico ´88, Sean McDonough `84, Beth Mowins ´90, Marv Albert ´63, and Bob Costas ´74 as winners of this award, which adds to Eagle´s voluminous trajectory as a sports broadcaster.
Eagle is the Brooklyn Nets play-by-play announcer since 1994 and calls NFL games for CBS, where he is on the No.2 team along with Dan Fouts and Evan Washburn. He has broadcast the NBA Playoffs on TNT since 2010 and also performs play-by-play on Westwood One´s Thursday night NFL coverage, among other broadcast duties.
Olivia Stomski, Director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center and Mike Tirico, the winner of the 2017 Marty Glickman Award, introduced Eagle and presented the Award at a ceremony filled with funny moments which illustrate the camaraderie among Newhouse graduates and industry colleagues.
“As Sean McDonough says, this is the last year we are giving out this award, because we have got to the bottom of the list,” Tirico jokingly said.
In addition to being one of the nation´s top play-by-play announcers, Eagle´s amiable personality and sharp sense of humour are some of his most distinctive characteristics.
“Ian just has this personality that is extremely funny, he´s got a very quick wit. I would say that if he weren´t in sports broadcasting, he´d be a stand-up comedian. He´s one of the funnier people in sports broadcasting, and it´s not forced, it´s really natural,” said Joe Lee, Director and General Manager of WAER Syracuse, the local NPR affiliate station.
Eagle started his broadcasting career at WAER, following the footsteps of other outstanding broadcasters like Mike Tirico, Sean McDonough, Bob Costas, and Marty Glickman, among others.
The award ceremony also saw a moment in memory of Hank Greenwald, a distinguished Syracuse University alumnus known chiefly for his baseball play-by-play announcing. Greenwald passed away on October 22.
Eagle repeatedly emphasized the qualities of Syracuse University as an institution that consistently produces outstanding broadcasters.
“It just keeps going. I think that is the thing about Syracuse that has always amazed me. Every year there´s another class of students that has the passion, the drive, and the wherewithal to make it in this business,” Eagle said.
