LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A member of WDRB's sports team is adding to his hall of fame career.
Rick Bozich was announced as one of the inductees for the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association 2023 Hall of Fame Class on Tuesday.
Congrats to @rickbozich on his upcoming induction into the ISSA Hall of Fame! While Rick is synonymous with sports coverage across the river in Louisville, his roots are in The Region in Gary, and is a proud IU alum. An honor well-deserved, congrats Rick!
— Greg Rakestraw (@gregrakestraw) January 24, 2023
This is the 27th year for the Hall of Fame. Inductees are "people who have graced Hoosier newspapers, radio stations and television airwaves during the past several decades."
Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, Bozich grew up delivering papers for The Post-Tribune. While his initial career goals were to be a starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox or the the Lakers point guard, writing and talking about sports "haven't been as hard on his knees and rotator cuff."
A Class of 1975 graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, where Bob Knight let him attend an occasional basketball practice, Bozich began his career with short stays at papers in Anderson, Indiana, and Bloomington before joining the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1978. He joined WDRB's newsroom in the summer of 2012 to write for WDRB.com, providing commentary both on air and online.
WDRB's Rick Bozich interviews Transportaton Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the barn of Dale Romans on Kentucky Derby morning , 2022. (Eric Crawford photo)
He's covered numerous NCAA Final Fours, Super Bowls, World Series, three Summer Olympics and one NBA Finals and was voted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2009. He also serves as the state chairman for the John Wooden College Basketball Player of the Year Award.Â
Additionally, Bozich has won first-place awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors for writing columns, features and game stories. A college basketball correspondent for Sports Illustrated for 20 years, he's also written for The New York Times, The Sporting News, Athlon Yearbooks and FoxSports.com.
When announcing this year's 2023 Hall of Fame Class on Tuesday, ISSA said:
"While Rick Bozich's career has taken him just across the river from the Hoosier state, he's spent many years writing about his alma mater's basketball team, that being the Indiana Hoosiers, including covering all things University of Louisville and Kentucky in a distinguished career of more than 40 years. Rick was born and raised in Gary, and his first job in the newspaper industry was delivering papers for The Post-Tribune. Rick worked briefly in Anderson before making the move to the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1979. After over 30 years at the Courier-Journal, including many years as a featured sports columnist, Rick made the move to television, appearing on camera while also continuing to write online on both WDRB television and WDRB.com."
Bozich and the rest of the ISSA 2023 Hall of Fame Class will be inducted during the annual awards banquet on Saturday, April 16 in Greenwood, Indiana.
Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
