April 19, 2010

Notre Dame, Ind. – Former longtime Notre Dame men’s basketball radio play-by-play announcer and 2007 honorary Monogram winner Jack Lorri was inducted into the Indiana Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame at the ISSA Hall of Fame Banquet at the Wyndham Hotel in Indianapolis on April 17. Lorri spent 38 years originating Notre Dame games on radio (1968-2006). A Norwich, Conn., native, he spent two years doing play by play for Kentucky basketball on radio in Lexington, Ky., then came to Elkhart, Ind., as sports director for WSJV-TV (then the ABC affiliate) and WTRC radio. Some of his 38 seasons involved originating games on WGN in Chicago and most recently via Notre Dame Sports Properties.

In accepting his award, Lorri said he had been doing Notre Dame games on radio “since the Johnson administration – Lyndon, not Andrew.” He added, “I started doing games in an era when they actually called traveling and when the lower parts of uniforms were actually short.” Lorri said he came to appreciate the standing of Indiana high school basketball when he first came to WTRC in Elkhart. “I had done two seasons of Kentucky games with Adolph Rupp’s squads, but before I could do Indiana high school games, they made me go to two or three games at Northside Gym in Elkhart and do demo tapes before they would give me the job.” In closing, Lorri added, “I was always sedated by the fact that no basketball games were ever won or lost by good or bad announcing.”

Lorri’s longtime broadcasting sidekick (and current play-by-play voice) Jack Nolan presented Lorri, and Notre Dame athletic staff members John Heisler and Scott Correira (NDSP) also attended. Other ISSA Hall of Famers include Joe Doyle, Bob Towner and Forrest Miller from the South Bend Tribune, as well as longtime Mutual Radio Notre Dame football voice Tony Roberts.