Chris Berman, the longtime face and voice of ESPN, will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 24."I'm humbled, and for one of the few times in my career, speechless," Berman said.
Since the infancy of ESPN, Berman has been an on-camera fixture for the all-sports network. He's been around as ESPN has moved from a stand-alone channel -- an afterthought without respect -- to its accepted status as a sometimes-too-corporate giant that controls what sporting events air and when. And, of course, if they even air at all.
Initially a reporter and then a "SportsCenter" host, Berman was ESPN's first breakout star. His signature calls included "Back, back, back ..." and "He .. could .. go .. all .. the .. way ..." for baseball highlights. In addition, his ability and willingness to award nicknames to anyone and everyone made him even more recognizable.
Berman himself is known as "Boomer" and "the Swami," the latter because of a recurring NFL picks segment.
In ESPN recent years, he has tied much of his on-air work to the NFL, hosting "Monday Night Countdown," among many other duties.
He's no longer on air as much as he was early in his career at ESPN (it would be impossible for anyone to get that much work considering the breadth of offerings from the all-sports network), but Berman remains one of the network's A-list on-air types. He's enjoyable and entertaining, if somewhat dated as sports journalism and sports on TV has changed since the inception of ESPN.
Still, it's an interesting honor because the Walk of Fame provides the type of Hollywood-sports crossover exposure ESPN types enjoy and both pay and pray to make happen. (And, make no mistake, you can buy a spot on the sidewalk mall of concrete hand and footprints and someone did in this case as all others.)