The Los Angeles Lakers conducted their annual Chick Hearn Day at Sunday’s game against the Orlando Magic at Staples Center, presenting scholarships to two USC students.
Since the death of their longtime play-by-play broadcaster in 2002, the Lakers have designated their home game closest to the Nov. 27 anniversary of his birth in 1916 as Chick Hearn Day or Night.
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism students Julia Adams and Nick Alfano were presented with the scholarships at halftime of the game, which the Lakers would go on to lose, 108-104.
Adams is a senior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism with a minor in sports media industries. Adams is sports director of Annenberg TV News and executive producer of Sports SCene, a student-run weekly 15-minute show.
Adams has interned for Fox Sports, the Wasserman Media Group and the USC Athletic Development. She said after graduation she would like to be a sportscaster, covering either college football or the NBA.
Alfano is a senior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism with a minor in business finance in the Marshall School of Business. He has interned for the USC Athletics Department, NBC Olympics, Brooklyn Nets and NBA and been a producer for Annenberg TV News.
Alfano said after graduation he would like to work for a professional sports league, team or television network.
Hearn was the Lakers play-by-play broadcaster 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 a broadcaster 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 franchises 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 broadcaster 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.”