Thursday, 21 November 2024

Dick Ebersol

Contest: The US Athletic Hall of Fame - Contributors 2024
Embed from Getty Images
Sport(s): Network Executive
Statistics: Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award
Member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame
Dick Ebersol was already a television genius before he took over as the president of NBC Sports. He was one of the co-creators of Saturday Night Live, and he was the producer of the Later with Bob Costas, Friday Night Videos, and along with wrestling mogul Vince McMahon, Saturday Night's Main Event.

Ebersol successfully kept the sports contracts they did have, and in 1996, NBC broadcast the Super Bowl, the World Series, NBA Finals, and Summer Olympics. No network ever did that before in a calendar year. It was Ebersol who brought the Olympics back to NBC in 1992 and kept it there, increasing ratings and production quality. There was a time when Ebersol was the most powerful man in sports, and if his fingerprints were on a product, the odds were strong that it would be great.

Ebersol resigned in 2011, but before he resigned, the big six commissioners of sport (MLB, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, NHL & PGA) and Muhammad Ali presented Ebersol the Lifetime Achievement from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. If that isn’t one of the biggest tributes to your impact, we don’t know what is.

We are proud to nominate Dick Ebersol for the United States Athletic Hall of Fame.