Matt Loughlin, radio play-by-play voice of the New Jersey Devils on The One Jersey Network and WFAN, was voted the 2018 New Jersey Sportscaster of the Year. It's his second state win. Gregg Lerner, of the Shore Sports Network, won his second New Jersey Sportswriter of the Year Award.
Emrick has served as the lead play-by-play voice for National Hockey League telecasts on NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network since 2011, just the latest stint in a hockey broadcasting career that began in 1973, as the voice of the Port Huron Flags. He has won the prestigious Foster Hewitt Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame and is enshrined in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He is a three-time winner of the NSMA's National Sportscaster of the Year Award.
Ley is synonymous with ESPN, beginning as a SportsCenter anchor on the network's third day of operation. A longtime fixture on the SportsCenter desk, Ley has spent the better part of the last 28 years as the host of ESPN's award-winning Outside the Lines program, which examines issues of the day in the sports world that go beyond the playing field and arena.
After getting his start in the newspaper business, King spent 29 years covering pro football at Sports Illustrated. His last 20 years at SI, he became known for his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback column, which frequently ran 6,000-to-8,000 words and covered everything NFL. Last July, King moved to NBCSports.com, where his Football Morning in America column runs each Monday.
Kornheiser spent 35 years as a sportswriter at the Washington Post, becoming a sports columnist for one of the nation's premier sports sections in 1984. He branched out into radio, with The Tony Kornhesier Show in 1992. The show is now available as a podcast. And since 1992, Kornheiser and former Washington Post co-worker Michael Wilbon have co-hosted ESPN's popular Pardon the Interruption.
Burke first female National winner
No stranger to firsts, Burke becomes the first woman to win one of the NSMA's National Awards. The former Providence College basketball player began her broadcasting career calling games for her alma mater in 1990. A succession of steps up the ladder included turns as a college basketball analyst for the Big East and Atlantic 10, before she landed at ESPN. Since 1991, Burke has served as an analyst and sideline reporter covering college basketball, the WNBA and NBA. She became a full-time ESPN NBA game analyst before the 2017-2018 season and serves as the lead NBA sideline reporter for the NBA Playoffs on ESPN and NBA Finals on ABC. The winner of several awards, Burke was named the 2018 winner of the Curt Gowdy Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame, for her outstanding contributions to basketball.
Wojnarowski has now won back-to-back NSMA National Sportswriter of the Year Awards, becoming the tenth person to do so. Known for his NBA scoops, or "Woj Bombs," ESPN's Senior NBA Insider left Yahoo Sports after nearly ten years, and on July 1, 2017, returned to his hometown of Bristol, Conn. to work at ESPN. Before Yahoo, Wojnarowski wrote for The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Fresno Bee and Waterbury Republican-American. He is a two-time winner of the Associated Press Spots Editors' "Columnist of the Year" award.
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