The CBC Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to announce that Terry Leibel, Alan Clark, Don E. Brown and Fred Sgambati will be the broadcasting legends to be inducted this year at the fourth annual CBC Sports Hall of Fame ceremony on November 18, 2010.
“We’re pleased to welcome these four newest members to the CBC Sports Hall of Fame,” said Scott Moore, executive director, CBC Sports. “Each made a unique and lasting contribution to CBC and to the Sports broadcasting industry, and we’re thrilled to honour each of them this year.”
Terry Leibel, a trail-blazing television broadcaster who broke new territory for women in the industry, became of one of the first woman to anchor a network sports program onCBC SPORTS WEEKENDand TSN SportsDesk and, in Atlanta in 1996, was the first woman to co-anchor network Olympic Games coverage. She continued in this rolefor the next five Olympic Games with CBC. Leibel, a member of Canada’s equestrian team from 1975 to 1980, was a highly respected member of CBC’s renowned championship show jumping coverage. In 2003, she became the first woman to win a Gemini award for sports broadcasting.
Alan Clark led CBC Radio Sports and later CBC Television Sports, and wasinstrumental in the growth and continued success of CBC Sports as aworldwide leader in sports production.Clarksuccessfully negotiated many landmark sports broadcasting agreements for CBC, including the landmark “five Games deal” with the IOC for rights to the Olympic Games from 2000 to 2008. Clark was one of the driving forces behind innovative CBC Sports programming including the now traditionalScotiabank Hockey Day in Canada, which began in 2000 and will celebrate its 11th national celebration of the game in February 2011, and double-header Saturday nights onCBC’s HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA.
Don E. Brown was an executive producer and director with CBC whose multi-decade career started in 1967. Brown played a key role in almost every major sporting event covered by CBC during that timeframe. Highlights include the 1978 XI Commonwealth Games from Edmonton, the 1994 XV Commonwealth Games from Victoria, the 1999 Pan Am Games from Winnipeg, and countless Olympic Games broadcasts. He also served as executive producer at CBC Vancouver (1981-1991) and CBC Montreal (1973-76 and 1979-81).
Fred Sgambati, or Scooter as he was known, was a mainstay of university football broadcasting on radio and well-known for his CFL work, and throughout his 28-year career he also covered historic events such as the 1972 Canada-Soviet Series, Canada Cup hockey, Olympic Games and Pan-Am Games.Sgambati passed away in 1979, but his legacy continues to be honoured through the Fred Sgambati Award, which is presented each year by Canadian Interuniversity Sport to a member of the news media who has made a major contribution to the development and growth of university sports.
The four new members of the CBC Sports Hall of Fame will join existing members Ernie Afaganis, Gordon Craig, Maggie Davis, Tom Fisk, Foster Hewitt,Danny Gallivan,Geoff Gowan, Dick Irvin, Joan Mead, Howie Meeker,Bob Moir, George Retzlaff, Ted Reynolds,Jim Thompson, Fred Walker and Don Wittman.
