Facenda, who narrated more than 800 NFL team highlights, Super Bowl specials, weekly and halftime shows for 21 years until his death in 1984, will be honored at the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 1. He has been named the third winner of the Pioneer award.
"Our basic premise when we got started in this business was to present pro football with flair and imagination, like Hollywood did with fiction," said Sabol, who will accept Facenda's award. "The other thing we wanted to do was have less script. Up until then, everything was wall-to-wall talk. But if we wrote less, then what we did say had to be very succinct and to the point. We needed a voice that made you pay attention.
"We were very fortunate to get John. His voice was our instrument. It was sophisticated and elegant, revered and distinguished. We weren't sure he'd do it, because at the time pro football was not the phenomenon it is today, in terms of importance and popularity. But he said he was a fan."
And the rest, as they say . . .
FOOTBALL
* Longtime NFL executive Jim Finks used quarterback Vince Evans's salary as an example of how the USFL fueled the bidding war between the two leagues, a major part of the younger league's $1.69 billion antitrust suit. Evans, who Finks described as an "average NFL quarterback," had his salary increased $446,750 when he jumped from the NFL's Chicago Bears to the USFL's Chicago Blitz in 1984. Finks, who is now vice president of the New Orleans Saints, testified that Evans's 1984 salary with the Blitz, including bonuses, was $626,750. With the Bears, Evans was paid $180,000 a year.
* An Essex County Superior Court judge has upheld speeding and drunken driving convictions against Byron Hunt and suspended the New York Giants linebacker's New Jersey driving privileges for one year. Judge William Harth also fined the 27-year-old Hunt $250 and ordered him to spend 12 hours at an alcohol treatment center.
