Cavalier wins inagural Jim Nantz Award

Somewhere between Jack Buck and Bob Costas in the realm of great sports broadcasters, the name Adam Cavalier may someday appear.

Cavalier, who graduated from Marshall University this spring, was named the winner of the first annual Jim Nantz Award for outstanding work as a sportscaster.

The award, presented by the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America, recognizes the most outstanding collegiate radio sportscaster in the country.

"To win the first Jim Nantz award is awesome beyond all reason," Cavalier said. "I was just thrilled to be listed among the top five, especially after seeing some of the other names of schools and people that I recognized."

The WMUL production manager has now won 98 awards in his four years on the staff.

"He's being recognized by people outside this program as being good," said WMUL faculty manager Chuck Bailey. "It's one thing for me to say 'he's good.' But my view of him has now been validated by a number of other judges."

Judges have taken notice of WMUL across the board. In Cavalier's four years as a member of the staff, the station has had the four highest yearly award totals in its history including an all-time high of 89 in the last school year.

"I think Adam took it as a goal to beat the record we had, which was 77 awards, set under Vince (Payne in 2006)," Bailey said. "Was it possible? We'd never done it before so nobody knew if it was possible. But we won 89."

Cavalier was either the winner of or a member of a team that won 64 of those awards.

"I've won awards ranging from sports play-by-play to sports programs to news reporting to news anchoring to sports anchoring to PSA production to training and manual writing," Cavalier said. "If you can think of something, chances are it's been done; if not by me, then by this radio station."

The range of awards and honors the station has received has established WMUL as one of the nation's strongest college radio stations.

"If they want to believe the program is what does it, more power to them," Bailey said. "I think it takes the program and the people together to do it. You have to have a good program that gives you opportunities and puts you in the right place to be successful. Then you have to be willing to do it. We've had students willing to do it."

No student has been a better example of hard work over the last four years than Cavalier. With his number of awards this year, he moved into second place on WMUL's all-time list behind only Payne's 126.

Cavalier, who returns to be the station manager as he starts grad school, is expected to surpass Payne's mark before he leaves Huntington.

"I think too many people think I have this innate ability to do what I do and that's just not the case," Cavalier said. "I might win awards and perform at a high level but it's through work ethic and many sleepless nights. Anyone can do this if they apply themselves the way that I have, especially with the tools here at Marshall Univesrity and WMUL."

With these experiences and awards on his resume, Cavalier hopes to someday be the play-by-play broadcaster for a Division I athletic department.

"The dream is a play-by-play job," Cavalier said. "Out of grad school, if I can land a play-by-play job anywhere, I would be thrilled. If it means I go to the University of Alsaska-Anchorage and call games for the Sea Wolves, by golly, I'll pack up, get myself a parka and move to Alaska. But that's where I hope it takes me."

Cavalier's versatility and work ethic, according to Bailey, are what will get him to where he needs to be.

"He has a lot of cuts he has to make and hurdles he has to clear in his race to the top," Bailey said. "But Adam is a very intelligent young man. He's a very motivated young man and now he's a very accomplished student broadcaster."

Once Cavalier is established in the field, they may change the Jim Nantz award to bear the name of its first recipient. It happened for Vince Lombardi at the Super Bowl.

Chris Dunham can be reached at dunham13@marshall.edu.