Marshall University Athletics
Cotton, McGill win NSMA awards in West Virginia
1/13/2020 3:44:00 PM | General, Big Green Scholarship Foundation
Marshall play-by-play voice, Assistant AD are state winners
Jan. 13, 2020
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Two members of the Marshall University athletic department were recognized Monday for their work.
Steve Cotton, the longtime Voice of the Thundering Herd, was named the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportscaster of the Year for 2019, the organization announced. Chuck McGill, Marshall's Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications, was recognized by the same organization as the state's Sportswriter of the Year.
Cotton and McGill have been invited to the NSMA's annual awards banquet, which will be held June 27-29 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. At the same banquet, the NSMA will honor Hall of Fame inductees Dan Patrick, Michael Wilbon and Tom Verducci. Deceased legends Skip Carey, Cawood Ledford and Dick Young will also enter the Hall of Fame.
The 2019 National Sportswriter of the Year winner is Adrian Wojnarowski, who has now won three consecutive national awards. Kevin Harlan is the 2019 National Sportscaster of the Year for the second time.
"Marshall University and our great Thundering Herd fans have two of the best in the business here to share our story," said Mike Hamrick, Marshall's Director of Athletics. "We're fortunate to have them both on our team."
This is Cotton's 14th Sportscaster of the Year award, a state record. He first won from the NSMA – then known as the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, or NSSA – in 1998. This year's honor is Cotton's fourth consecutive win.
McGill has won the NSMA's West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award eight times, which is the third most in state history, and has won a record-setting seven consecutive times. He has been a finalist for the state honor in each of the last 10 years, first winning in 2011 and then capturing the honor every year since 2013.
Cotton has been the primary MU athletics radio play-by-play man since 1996, and called his 1,000th game (football and men's basketball) on Saturday, Jan. 5. Cotton also took home the state's sportscaster prize in 2001, 2003-06, 2008-10, 2014 and 2016-17. He is the all-time leader in state Sportscaster of the Year awards by the NSMA, ahead of Jack Fleming's nine and Keith Morehouse's five.
McGill, 39, joined the Marshall athletic department in July of 2016, and has taken home this award every year since his arrival. He provides written content for HerdZone.com and Thundering Herd Illustrated, the latter of which is the official magazine of Marshall Athletics. He also oversees HerdVision, the athletic department's digital network.
The NSMA began handing out awards in 1959. The first West Virginia winners were Jack Fleming, who at the time worked for WAJR in Morgantown, and Dick Hudson, the longtime sports editor of the Charleston Daily Mail.
