The Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame will induct four new members at luncheons in Jonesboro and Springdale in June.
The four elected to the 2024 class are sportscasters Charlie Jones and Dick Clay, and sportswriters Grant Hall and Charlie Cromwell. Jones and Clay will be inducted posthumously.
The induction ceremony for Clay and Cromwell will be hosted by Centennial Bank on June 21 in Jonesboro. Additional details will be announced closer to the induction date.
Jones and Hall will be inducted during a June 26 meeting of the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club at Home2 Suites in Springdale.
After attending the University of Southern California and obtaining a law degree from the University of Arkansas, Jones began his broadcasting career in his hometown of Fort Smith and became best known for his work at national networks. He worked at NBC from 1965-97 and had stints with ABC from 1960-65 and 1999-2001.
Jones began as a play-by-play announcer for American Football League games on ABC. He moved to NBC in 1965 and became one of the network’s most recognizable voices, notably calling the NFL, but also working on network coverage of the Olympics, Wimbledon and the PGA Tour.
When Jones died at the age of 77 in 2008, long-time NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol called him “one of the great pioneers of NBC Sports,” according to The Associated Press.
Clay, who died in 2014 at the age of 78, was the sports director at Jonesboro TV station KAIT from 1970-98. Thousands of households in Arkansas and Missouri heard him sign off each night with, “I’m Dick Clay, and that’s sports!”
He hosted “Dick Clay Sports Magazine” for several years on KAIT after he retired as the channel’s sports director. The show focused on hunting, fishing and the outdoors.
Clay grew up in Portageville, Mo., and attended Arkansas State University, where he graduated with a Master’s Degree in physical education. In the 1970s he served as the first director of the Arkansas Special Olympics.
Hall, 76, grew up in Fayetteville and spent his entire professional career in his hometown. He was a sportswriter at the Northwest Arkansas Times from 1972-91 and at the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas from 1992 until his retirement in 2009.
Hall served as the sports editor at the Times for 17 years and at the Morning News for one year.
In addition to newspaper, Hall has been a fixture on local radio since the 1970s on various programs. He and Rick Schaeffer also hosted a local call-in cable TV show called “Sports Line Live” for several years into the 1990s.
Hall was born in Louisville, Ky., and lived in Florida until his family moved to Fayetteville when he was 5. He graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1972.
Cromwell, 72, grew up in Pine Bluff and attended Arkansas State University, where he earned a degree in radio and television in 1974. He worked at radio stations in Jonesboro and Pine Bluff for a short time before he was hired at the Jonesboro Sun in 1977.
He quickly became sports editor at the newspaper and held that position for 15 years until he resigned in 1993. He and his wife worked at newspapers in Augusta, Ga., Albuquerque, N.M., and Atlanta over the next several years, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution where he was a copy editor.
Cromwell got out of the newspaper business to become a paralegal for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta for 15 years until his retirement in 2021. He lives in Decatur, Ga.
ARKANSAS SPORTSCASTERS AND SPORTSWRITERS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
Sportscasters: Chuck Barrett, Frank Broyles, Bud Campbell, Dick Clay, Dizzy Dean, Paul Eells, Jim Elder, Mike Harrison, Mike Irwin, Keith Jackson, Charlie Jones, George Kell, Mike Nail, Rex Nelson, Steve Sullivan, Pat Summerall, Terry Wallace, Dave Woodman
Sportswriters: Nate Allen, Jim Bailey, Charlie Cromwell, Grant Hall, Wally Hall, Clay Henry, Orville Henry, Bob Holt, Harry King, David McCollum, Jerry McConnell, Joe McGee, Wadie Moore, Joe Mosby, Chris Mortensen, George Schroeder, Donna Lampkin Stephens, Bob Wisener