UPDATE / BANQUET SOLD OUT: The inaugural Pasadena ISD Athletics Hall of Fame banquet has sold out, organizing committee chairman Terry Brotherton announced Friday morning. The sellout was announced just two days after Wednesday's start of ticket sales.
By AL CARTER
Pasadena ISD Communications
Hall of Fame broadcaster Dan Lovett, a local favorite as sports anchor at Channel 13 who went on to national acclaim with ABC Sports, will serve as emcee for the inaugural Pasadena ISD Athletics Hall of Fame banquet, Hall of Fame committee chairman Terry Brotherton announced on Monday.
Tickets for the April 14 banquet go on sale Wednesday at the Pasadena ISD ticket office, 2906 Dabney. The ticket office is located on the east side of Phillips Field House, the site of the banquet.
A limited number of tickets are available at $50 each. Full tables of 10 seats and Founding Member sponsorships that include tickets are also available on a very limited basis.
"There's no better way to underscore the importance of this event than to have Dan Lovett as our emcee," Brotherton said.
"Dan was as much a part of the Houston sports scene in the 1960s and 1970s as Elvin Hayes, George Foreman, A.J. Foyt and Dante Pastorini. He remains one of the great professionals in sports journalism."
In 1968, Lovett was named to the original "Eyewitness News" reporting team at Channel 13 along with anchorman Dave Ward and weatherman Ed Brandon. After six years as the station's sports anchor, Lovett left Houston for WABC-TV in New York, the start of an ABC Sports career that spanned nearly three decades.
"We are very excited and honored that Dan Lovett will be with us in Pasadena on this very important occasion," said Pasadena businessman Ben Meador, a member of the Hall of Fame committee.
"Dan is a nationally known sportscaster who has served radio and television stations across the country after getting his start here in Houston on Channel 13. A member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, he has a wealth of knowledge and many interesting stories to share."
The banquet will honor the first 12 inductees into the Athletics Hall of fame:
• Robert "Bob" Barfield, the long-time Pasadena High football coach who led the Eagles to the state championship game in 1958, his first season at the school.
• George Cheshire, Pasadena Class of 1964, a football and track standout who developed into one of the Southwest Conference's top receivers at Baylor.
• Carl Choate, Pasadena Class of 1959, who starred on the Eagles 1958 team and went on to play football at Baylor.
• Bert Coan, Pasadena Class of 1958, a national sensation in football and track who went on to play in the American Football League.
• Trevor Cobb, Dobie Class of 1989, who went on to shatter rushing records at Rice and in 1991 won the Doak Walker Award as the nation's best running back.
• David Freisleben, Sam Rayburn Class of 1971, who pitched seven seasons in the major leagues.
• Bill Henry, Pasadena Class of 1946, a basketball standout on the Eagles' 1946 state championship team and a pitcher for 16 seasons in the major leagues.
• Mike Kirkland, Pasadena Class of 1972, who played quarterback at the University of Arkansas and with the Baltimore Colts.
• Mickey McCarty, Pasadena Class of 1964, who excelled in basketball and baseball at TCU and went on to play football in the NFL.
• Dan McIlhany, South Houston Class of 1961, who played quarterback at Texas A&M and defensive back in the NFL.
• E.W. "Ned" Thompson, an all-sports coach at Pasadena High who led the Eagles to the state championship in basketball in 1946.
• Christa Williams, Dobie Class of 1996, who won two Olympic gold medals in softball.
Annual spring banquets are planned to honor future inductees and to raise money to provide scholarships to student-athletes from Pasadena ISD schools.
The banquet will include student participants from the five Pasadena ISD schools, a formal unveiling of the Hall of Fame display and an autograph session with inductees immediately after the ceremony, which begins at 6 p.m.
All nine of the living inductees will be in attendance as will family members representing the three deceased inductees: Barfield, McCarty and Thompson. Lovett will also participate in the autograph session after the ceremony.
An Idaho native, Lovett arrived in Houston in 1963 as a newsman for KILT Radio during the station's Top 40 heyday. In 1965, he was dispatched to South Vietnam to file reports for all of the stations managed by KILT's owner, broadcast pioneer Gordon McClendon. Only 25 at the time, Lovett was the youngest war correspondent ever accredited.
While at Channel 13, he handled play-by-play for the Houston Oilers for four seasons. In 1969, he worked an Oilers pre-season telecast on Channel 13 that featured the color commentary debut of Don Meredith, who soon after shot to broadcasting fame as a member of ABC's Monday Night Football.
While with ABC, Lovett became a close associate of Howard Cosell, another Monday Night Football fixture who ranked as sports journalism's best-known commentator of the era. Lovett also handled play-by-play for the Washington Redskins from 1980 to 1983.
He has covered 20 Super Bowls and 10 World Series. He covered the Olympic Games from 1972 to 1996 and worked the U.S. hockey team's upset of the Soviet Union - the famed "Miracle on Ice" - for radio at the 1980 Winter Olympics. While at ABC sports, he served as the first sports anchor of ABC World News Weekend with Sam Donaldson.
One year after his retirement from ABC Sports in 2002, Lovett was elected to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.
He now works as a video consultant for several lodges and safari companies in Africa. He also works closely with a church project in Zambia that is providing an orphanage, clinic and a school to children in the bush country.
Lovett and his wife of 35 years, Olivia, make their home in northwest Houston.
For information about Founding Member sponsorships, please contact Herman Williams, treasurer of the Pasadena ISD Athletic Hall of Fame, at 713-907-1190, or by email at [email protected].
Additional information is posted on the Hall of Fame website: www1.pasadenaisd.org/halloffame.