Lesley Visser will be first woman recognized by Pro Football Hall of Fame Visser Selected 2006 Recipient of Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award

June 29, 2006

Lesley Visser is the 2006 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.  The award given annually by the Hall of Fame recognizes “long-time exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.”  This season will mark her 34th year covering the NFL as both a television reporter and print journalist. Visser will be the first woman to be recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“Recognition by the Pro Football Hall of Fame is beyond any dream I could have imagined for myself or any other woman when I saw my first game, the AFL Patriots against the Raiders in 1964,” said Visser.  “The passion I discovered on that day inspired my preparation over three decades as a writer and a broadcaster. I’m overwhelmed by being chosen the recipient of the Pete Rozelle Award.  It is a tremendous honor to be connected with his great legacy and to the list of honorees that have gone before me.”

Previous winners of the award include Myron Cope, Van Miller, Don Criqui, John Madden, Roone Arledge, Ray Scott, Dick Enberg, Val Pinchbeck, Charlie Jones, Jack Buck, Frank Gifford, Pat Summerall, Curt Gowdy, Chris Schenkel, Ed Sabol, Lindsey Nelson and Bill McPhail.

This fall Visser returns as a feature reporter for the THE NFL TODAY and CBS Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl XLI.  Last year she served as lead reporter for the Network’s coverage of the NFL, teaming with CBS Sports’ No. 1 announce team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.

Visser worked her 28th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship last March, having worked the tournament for the Boston Globe, ESPN and CBS.  Visser was honored by the American Women in Radio and Television, Inc. in June 2006 as a recipient of a Gracie Allen Award which celebrates programming created for women, by women and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the industry.  In 2005 she won the Pop Warner female achievement award and was inducted into the New England Sports Museum Hall of Fame, along with Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy and the 1980 United States Olympic Hockey team.

Visser was a reporter for THE SUPER BOWL TODAY, CBS Sports' Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII pre-game broadcasts. She also contributes reports for CBS News and served as a reporter for HBOs' "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” She spent nearly seven years with ABC Sports and was a sideline reporter for "Monday Night Football," becoming the first woman assigned to the series and the first woman ever to report from the sidelines during a Super Bowl. While at ABC Sports, Visser served as a reporter for college football bowl games and NFL playoff games. She also contributed to ABC's coverage of Triple Crown horse racing, "ABC's Wide World of Sports," Major League Baseball, including the World Series, figure skating, Special Olympics, skiing, the Pro Bowl, and an ABC series "A Passion to Play.” She hosted the network's coverage of the "Millennium Tournament of Roses Parade.”

She returned to CBS Sports in August 2000 as a contributor to THE NFL TODAY, college basketball, figure skating and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Visser covered the NCAA Final Four and Super Bowl for ESPN. She joined CBS Sports in 1984 and became full-time in 1987. Her assignments included the NBA, college basketball, MLB, college football, U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the Winter Olympics, and she was a regular on THE NFL TODAY. In 1992 Visser became the first woman to handle the post-game presentation ceremony at the Super Bowl and in 1989 she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, focusing on how sports would change in East Germany.  Visser became the first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch when she was honored in 2004 by the International Olympic Committee as a “pioneer and standard-bearer.” Visser is the only sportscaster in history who has worked on the network broadcast of the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympics, U.S. Open and World Figure Skating Championship.

Visser began her career in sports journalism in 1974 as a member of the Boston Globe sports staff on a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, two years later she was assigned to cover the New England Patriots, becoming the first ever female NFL beat writer. While at the Boston Globe she covered the NCAA Final Four, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, World Series, Wimbledon, the Olympics and college football.

Visser has been honored with the Compass Award for “changing the paradigm of her business” and was one of the 100 luminaries commemorating the 75th anniversary of the CBS Television Network in 2003. She was named “WISE Woman of the Year” in 2002 and voted the “Outstanding Women's Sportswriter in America” in 1983 and won the “Women's Sports Foundation Award for Journalism” in 1992. In 1999 she won the first AWSM Pioneer Award. Visser earned her bachelor's degree in English from Boston College. She was born Sept. 11 in Quincy, Mass and is married to FOX/Turner sportscaster Dick Stockton. They reside in Boca Raton, Fla.

QUOTES ABOUT LESLEY VISSER AS THE 2006 RECIPIENT
OF THE PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME’S PETE ROZELLE RADIO AND TELEVISON AWARD 

Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports – “Lesley Visser’s career has broken many barriers and defined previously unimagined roles for woman in professional sports and sports broadcasting. She has reached the pinnacle as a writer and a broadcaster, earning trust and respect while maintaining a warmth and style that separates her from all others.”

Tony Petitti – Executive Vice President and Executive Producer, CBS Sports – “Lesley Visser’s entire career has been marked by firsts.  From being the first woman to host a Super Bowl trophy presentation to the first woman recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Lesley continues to break through.  CBS Sports is proud to have this Hall of Fame first on our team of broadcasters.”

Ernie Accorsi, New York Giants General Manager – “Lesley Visser is a pioneer and a ground breaker. She is going down in sports history. Her legacy is secure. Winning the award memorialized by Pete Rozelle is something she will carry for the rest of her life.”

Dick Stockton, Lesley Visser’s Husband and Fox Sports Announcer – “I am extremely proud of Lesley particularly because she is being honored by the sport she loves the most. She carries herself with the same class as the long list of indelible names that have gone before her.”

Jim Nantz, CBS Sports - “I’m thrilled for Lesley.  She continues to break through and achieve in reaching milestones that as recently as a quarter century ago, no one even imagined.  It’s nice to see nice people rewarded for their success.”

John Madden, NBA Sports – “I have known Lesley for over thirty years starting back when she wrote for the Boston Globe.  She is one of the best journalists in the country and there is no one more deserving of his honor.”

Vince Doria– Vice President and Director of News, ESPN and Visser’s first editor at the Boston Globe – “Lesley has been the trailblazer for women sports writers all across America.  The number of firsts for her are too many to count.  Her job has always required aggression and she always did it with grace and flair while at the same time becoming a terrific journalist and making lots of friends.  The honor is so well deserved because she opened doors for lots of people, especially women, and she has always had the great ability to give time to people coming into the profession.

Joe Torre, Manager, New York Yankees “Lesley Visser doesn't demand respect, she commands it.”

Boomer Esiason, CBS Sports – “No one has more passion or is better prepared than Lesley.  Athletes both like and respect her."

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