Sports Media Leader Nabs Academy Distinguished Service Award
Academy Assistant Dean of Student Services Craig Bogar (left) presents the Distinguished Service Award to Chet Simmons (Right).
The United States Sports Academy announced that sport media innovator Chet Simmons has received the Academy’s Distinguished Service Award. The Academy presented Simmons with the award in Savannah, Georgia on 7 February.
For more than four decades, Chet Simmons has made major contributions to the world of sports broadcasting and has helped shape contemporary sports television. In 1957, Simmons joined Sports Programs Inc., a move that officially launched his career in sports television. It was not long before the Sports Programs organization evolved into the highly acclaimed ABC-TV sports lineup, including Wide World of Sports and the network’s Olympic Games coverage.
Beginning in 1964, Simmons became an executive for NBC Sports and eventually rose to the position of president, an office he inaugurated and held from 1977 to 1979.
In the late 1970s, Simmons helped launch the Entertainment and Sports programming Network, better known as ESPN. Beginning in1979, Simmons served as founding president and CEO of the network. He was instrumental in the development of the signature telecast SportsCenter and the concept to televise the NFL draft. Simmons left ESPN in 1982 to become the first Commissioner of the United States Football League.
In 2005, Simmons was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award (Emmy) by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2006, he was inducted into his alma mater’s Hall of Fame at the University of Alabama College of Communications and Information Sciences.
The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is given annually to those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to national or international sports through instruction, research or service. It has been presented by the Academy since 1984. Past honorees include Don Shula, Martina Navratilova, Pat Summitt, Eddie Robinson, George Steinbrenner and Bud Selig. For more information, visit http://www.asama.org/awards.
Simmons will receive the Academy's Order of the Eagle Exemplar medal and Academy Rosette. The Academy's Order of the Eagle Exemplar medallion was designed by the Academy's Sport Artist of the Year 1990, Blair Buswell. He will also be presented with the Academy Rosette, modeled after the Legion of Honor instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. A rosette is a symbol of recognition and affiliation.
