By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, filed January 11, 2015
Atlanta Hawks radio broadcaster Steve Holman was named 2014 Georgia Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA).
"It's a reflection on the Hawks because they're doing so well," he said in an interview Sunday morning. "More people are noticing. I've done what I've done for 30 years and I've loved every minute of it. Of course, winning is a lot more fun."
Holman, heard locally on 92.9/The Game, is the Lou Gehrig of broadcasting in Atlanta. In his 30th season as the "Voice of the Hawks," he has missed exactly zero broadcasts to date. Not to bad weather. Not to illness. Not for anything for that matter.
He has done play-by-play 2,175 times in a row over a quarter century. That is longer than baseball legend Gehrig's 2,130 games in a row but he's at least five years away from exceeding Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632 consecutive games. And there's a man named Chick Hearn who broadcast 3,338 Los Angeles Lakers games in a row over 36 years. That is still more than a decade away.
"I'm 60 now," he said. "I have no intentions of leaving as long as they let me do it and I'm still physically able to do it."
He is working to stay in fighting shape for years to come. He has lost 60 pounds over the past four years and walks four miles on the treadmill every day, no matter whether he's in town or out of town. He noted that there are several play-by-play broadcasters in the NBA far older than him such as 81-year-old Al McCoy, voice of the Phoenix Suns since 1972 and 68-year-old George Blaha, play-by-play broadcaster for the Detroit Pistons going back to 1976.
Holman will be honored during the NSSA’s annual awards banquet on June 8 in Salisbury, NC. "I wouldn't miss it - unless the Hawks are in the finals," he said.
With each passing day, that is a more likely possibility.
In 2011, Holman was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2011 and he has also taken home the Georgia Associated Press Award for his Hawks coverage.
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