The Los Angeles Lakers conducted their annual Chick Hearn Night at Sunday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center, holding a school supplies drive and presenting scholarships to two USC students.
Since the death of their longtime play-by-play announcer in 2002, the Lakers have designated their home game closest to the Nov. 27 anniversary of his birth as Chick Hearn Night.
The school supplies donated will benefit the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Homeless Education Program.
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism students Rachel Kohn and Connor McGlynn were presented with the scholarships at halftime by Shannon Hearn, a granddaughter of Hearn, and Kayla Hearn, a great-granddaughter of Hearn.
Kohn is a senior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism and minoring in sports media studies. Kohn is a producer and editor at NFL.com. She said she hopes to become a television sports producer after graduating.
Kohn, who was raised in the Baltimore area, said being an Annenberg student has taught her how to be “independent, to make my own decisions and stick to them, to be able to move across the country and still have the life I’ve always dreamed of and to realize dreams can be reachable with hard work.”
McGlynn is a junior broadcast and digital journalism major who said his goal is to be a basketball and football play-by-play announcer at either the college or professional level.
McGlynn, who was raised in the Philadelphia area, has announced football and baseball games on the school’s radio station, managed the 2015 Rose Bowl Game’s official social media accounts and has been the sports multimedia director for Annenberg Television News, the school’s television-multimedia news operation.
McGlynn said he’s learned to be creative at Annenberg.
“There are certain basics that are at the bottom of any story, but you’ve got to bring your personality and allow that to show forth through your work and that’s what makes it interesting and makes the whole profession fun,” McGlynn said.
The Annenberg school offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and strategic public relations, and bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in communications.
“What we want to do is create the next generation of people who have the ethics and the attitude as well as the professional orientation to make contributions to society,” Dean Ernest J. Wilson III told City News Service.
The school is seeking to “break down the silos and barriers between” journalism, public relations and communications, Wilson said.
“We understand the world is becoming so integrated that we need to create networks, not silos,” Wilson said. “We try to get the best teachers in the world and the best professionals to help educate our students.”
Hearn was the Lakers play-by-play announcer from the start of their radio broadcasts during the 1961 NBA playoffs until his death. He coined many phrases, including slam dunk, which have transcended basketball into use in everyday life.
Hearn’s skill as an announcer is credited with helping turn the Lakers from a team that drew 4,008 fans for its first game in Los Angeles in 1960 to becoming one of the nation’s most popular teams at the time of his death.
Hearn was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
“He was the best basketball announcer ever,” Lakers television play-by- play announcer Bill Macdonald said, citing Hearn’s passion for the game, delivery, cadence, humor, knowledge, love of the team and honesty.
“We were just all lucky to grow up listening to him.”
—City News Service