Dick Enberg honored at sport management conference, men's basketball game

Dick Enberg has won 14 Sports Emmy awards and nine National Sportscaster of the Year awards – and it began at Central Michigan.

“I was a total nobody, but then this university gave me a chance to be somebody,” Enberg said.

At halftime of Saturday night’s CMU basketball game Enberg’s bust was officially unveiled. Its located at the main entrance of the Events Center with a thumbs-up pose from his 1980 commencement speech.

The Central Michigan Sport Management Association hosted its second professional development conference, “Behind the Scenes of Sport” Friday and Saturday inside the French auditorium of the Education and Human Services building.

Alumnus Terry Foster, a Detroit News sports columnist and radio host on 97.1 The Ticket, was Friday’s keynote speaker and Enberg, play-by-play announcer for the San Diego Padres was Saturday’s keynote presentation.

On Friday, Foster, a former reporter for Central Michigan Life, reminisced on past articles he wrote and how some journalists have lost the ability to be a “people person” in the era of technology.

“When you write a story, it’s like building a building,” Foster said. “You have steel, you have wood, carpet, furniture, but the most important thing for any building is people. We kind of get lost in all of the electronic stuff and I think that’s why I think the people business has kind of gone by the wayside.”

Foster gave advice to students on how to further a resume. He said he’s been in the newsroom when someone files through resumes. His advice is to put a face to that resume because it can easily be clumped together with others unless the publication has a reason to recognize it.

Friday’s event began with Athletics Director Dave Heeke, and transitioned Paul Barbeau, the General Manager/President of the Great Lakes Loons – a minor league baseball team in Midland and concluded with Foster.

Barbeau went into details of what he expects from his employees and that anybody affiliated with the Loons organization gives it a good or bad image at any time.

Saturday’s speakers were Talia Mark, a marketing manager for United States Swimming and Bob Chichester, the Director of Student-Athlete Affairs of the NCAA and Enberg.

Several breakout sessions allowed students to meet the professionals and ask questions. Those professionals included Matt Fahr (Cleveland Cavaliers), Brian Brunner (Chippewa Athletic Fund), Lester Booker (Detroit Pistons), Matt Oberlin (Saginaw Valley State), Julia Janssen (Lansing Lugnuts), Dan Heck (CMU Athletics) and Bill Keenist (Detroit Lions).

"The conference went extremely well," said former SMA President Nathan Kopp. "I think everyone who attended would agree that they gained a wealth of knowledge about different positions in the industry"