The 31st Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame class was inducted on May 3 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom at a black-tie dinner. The final speech of the evening fell to Jim Nantz, the CBS Sports announcer and recipient of the hall's Lifetime Achievement Award, a distinction the legendary sports voice referred to jokingly once or twice in his 18-minute speech, spoken behind a blank teleprompter. The evening emcees were NBC News's Craig Melvin and CBS Sports's Tracy Wolfson. Here is Nantz's speech.
OK. Hello friends, and good evening. I'm just gonna check my phone for a minute here. It's 8:57. Bill [McGorry, the B+C Hall chairman], I want to thank you, because you told me a couple days ago, "You’re gonna be the last man up, but you have to be done at 9:30.” [Laughter.] So we're gonna get a little extended play here tonight. Thirty-three minutes of my career coming up. Bill, I promised you, I promised you, I've gotta live up to my words. So, um, here's the long-form version of my story.
