When former sports anchors John Popovich and Ken Broo attended Ohio University together in the early 1970s, the farthest thing from their minds was ever being inducted into a journalism hall of fame.
“I don't think Ken and I could have imagined this 50 years ago. I know I didn't. I just wanted a job,” says Popovich, who will be inducted with Broo and longtime WCPO-TV sports partner Dennis Janson into the Greater Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists' Hall of Fame Monday, Sept. 16, during a dinner in the Bally Sports Club at Great American Ball Park.
Also to be inducted at the sold-out dinner are former ESPN SportsCenter anchor and Game Day Communications founder Betsy Ross; retired WLWT-TV sports anchor George Vogel; “The Morning Line” blogger and former newspaper columnist Paul Daugherty; Bengals Radio Network host Wayne Box Miller; WKRC-TV executive sports producer Kevin Barnett; and the late Enquirer baseball beat writer John Fay.
Here are profiles of the honorees in my June 24 article “Nine sports journalists headed into Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame.”
Monday’s ceremony will be the largest induction class — nine — in the 24-year history of the local journalism Hall of Fame. It also may be a one-of-a-kind event. With shrinking TV and newspaper sports staffs — WKRC-TV has no sports anchors currently — it’s likely there won’t be another big sports group entering the Hall of Fame in the future.
“It’s a terrific way to honor these sports legends whose total contribution to Greater Cincinnati sports number more than 300 years. That’s three centuries! And that’s pretty cool,” says Tom McKee, the retired WCPO-TV reporter and longtime Cincinnati SPJ Board member who organized the event.
Established in 1990, the local journalism Hall of Fame includes TV anchors Al Schottelkotte, Peter Grant, Nick Clooney, Clyde Gray, Carol Williams, Rob Braun and John Lomax; reporters Lafcadio Hearn, Gerald White, Ben Kaufman, Polly Campbell, Allen Howard, Deborah Dixon, Chic Poppe and John R. Clark; cartoonists Jim Borgman and Jerry Dowling; sportscaster Red Barber; and sportswriters Hal McCoy, Earl Lawson and Pat Harmon.
“It’s pretty humbling for a kid from Glenway Avenue in Price Hill to be up there with these journalism greats — and not just the sports people,” says Janson, sports anchor for WKRC-TV’s popular Nick Clooney-Ira Joe Fisher team in the 1970s before jumping to WCPO-TV in 1984. The Elder High School graduate, who retired in 2013, started his career at WSAI-AM and also worked for WKRC-AM and Dayton’s WONE-AM and WDTN-TV.
Janson and Popovich — Channel 9 sports teammates for 30 years — are particularly pleased to enter the Hall of Fame together.
“Dennis and I will always have a special friendship. I learned a lot from him about chasing a story. But I will always be glad that he was such a strong anchor presence because that's something I never wanted to do. I wanted to report and be out on stories,” says Popovich, who set the gold standard for sports storytelling during his 40 years at WCPO-TV (1979-2019). He also created the Sunday night Sports Of All Sorts magazine show (as a live, one-hour program) in 1980.
“I learned a lot about dealing with the public from DJ. I wasn't used to that when I came to Cincinnati. I walked into a few bars with DJ and watched him work a crowd. Very impressive. He remembered names and took the time to speak with everyone,” says Popovich, who took over the main sports anchor chair when Janson retired. The Northeast Ohio native came to Channel 9 from a TV station in Davenport, Iowa.
Broo, who anchored sports for WLWT-TV, WKRC-TV and WCPO-TV, had a hand in hiring Vogel for Channel 5 sports and Barnett for Channel 12 sports, McKee says.
Popovich says he went to OU wanting to become a play-by-play announcer “but when I heard Ken and a couple of other guys already doing games on WOUB, I realized I wasn't in their class. So I went into news instead and that's how I got my start in the business. It was very helpful because I had to be a lot more careful with my reporting, which carried over when I went into sports,” he says.
Being selected for the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame is special to Popovich because “it recognizes writing and reporting, two things for which sports journalists aren't always given credit. Secondly, it's the people in this class. I'm worked with most of them, and at the very least I've had a chance to know all of them over the years. And I like and I respect them all.”
Popovich and Janson are such good buddies that Janson asked “Popo” to induct him into the Hall of Fame Monday. The celebrities invited to induct their sports friends will help make the night special. Reds Hall of Famer Eric Davis will speak about Miller, his former agent. Basketball coach Chris Mack will induct his former roommate Barnett.
Matt Broo, an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor, will induct his father Ken. Daugherty will be introduced by his son, Kelly, referred to as “the kid down the hall” by the columnist. Game Day Communications CEO Jackie Reau will induct business partner Ross.
Also doing inductions are WLWT-TV news anchor Mike Dardis (Vogel); WCPO-TV news anchor Tanya O’Rourke (Popovich); and Michael Perry, E. W. Scripps vice president and former Enquirer sportswriter (Fay). Marty Brennaman will speak about Fay, who died of cancer a year ago, in a video.
Awards for the Cincinnati SPJ’s annual Excellence in Journalism contest will be presented during a 5:30 p.m. reception in the ball park’s Handlebar hospitality room before the dinner. There are four major award winners, 54 winners in broadcast, print and web categories; and 71 other finalists to be presented certificates, McKee says.
