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June 17, 2009

ULM alum Tim Brando honored with 2009 Jake Wade Award

ULM alum, veteran television sports announcer, and nationally recognized radio personality Tim Brando was selected as the 2009 winner of the Jake Wade Award by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) recently.

Named for acclaimed sports journalist Jake Wade who was sports information director at the University of North Carolina for 16 years and a national magazine contributor for the Charlotte Observer, the honor is awarded annually to the individual who has made an outstanding contribution in the media to the field of intercollegiate athletics.

Previous recipients of the award include Keith Jackson, Furman Bisher, Dick Enberg, Jim Simpson, Dan Jenkins, Dick Vitale, Robin Roberts, Christine Brennan, and Billy Packer.

“The College Sports Information Directors Association of America has honored me beyond comprehension with this award,” Brando said. “To be mentioned alongside the past recipients, Keith Jackson, Dick Enberg, and Dick Vitale to name a few, is truly humbling. It was just over 20 years ago when Vitale and I came to [Fant] Ewing Coliseum to call an NCAA play in game that brought national attention to the campus. It was so much fun to call that game.”

In a career that began as a 14-year old play-by-play personality for the Neville High School Tigers, Brando has worked as a television personality for ESPN and CBS and covered 25 sports. He has served as the voice of NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships, called play-by-play for ‘The NFL on CBS,’ as well as play-by-play for SEC football and basketball, ACC basketball, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, the MLB’s Atlanta Braves, and TNT’s NBA playoffs in 1994.

From 1981-86 he served as the sports director at WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge where he was the voice of the LSU basketball team.

Currently, Brando lives in Shreveport where he hosts “The Tim Brando Show” every weekday on Sporting News radio from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Brando attended ULM and earned a degree in television/radio management in 1978. A native of Shreveport, he and his wife Terri have two daughters, Tiffany and Tara.

"I'll never forget [then] NLU in 1974 as a high school Senior and winning first place in the [then] NLU Speech Festival,” Brando said. “It led to an association with Dr. James W. Parkerson that I will never forget. Thirty five years later my appreciation remains the same."

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