NBC Sports-Philly’s Michael Barkann is the PSWA’s choice for the 2025 Bill Campbell Award for excellence in broadcasting
By Jon Marks, Freelance Writer, PSWA Past President
For those who don’t know about him or never heard him on the air here’s how Michael Barkann describes the late Bill Campbell: “I’d say he was the consummate Philadelphian. He brought to life everything you see on the field. He was always prepared and passionate, light-hearted and well liked.
“That’s all you as a fan can ask for.”
Funny, that’s pretty much what they’d say about Barkann, recipient of the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association’s 2024 Bill Campbell Award for excellence in broadcasting. The NBC Sports-Philly host and anchor will receive his award on Thursday, January 16, at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Cherry Hill, NJ. And you can join in on the fun by clicking here to purchase tickets and find out more about the list of other honorees
For nearly the past three decades he’s been the voice of the fans in his various roles on TV and radio, going back to when he was the first person you saw when Comcast Sportsnet, now NBC Sports-Philadelphia, went on the air in October 1997.
Go back a decade earlier and you’d find the kid from North Jersey who’d just graduated from Syracuse, doing his thing on KYW-TV 3. But following a five-year stint there he headed to Boston for the next five years.
That’s when Comcast came calling, bringing Michael back at a time when the Flyers were the only winning team in town. He’s been a fixture since, doing a bit of everything. Just like Campbell used to do.
“What this guy did in his career in Philadelphia was amazing,” said Barkann, host of NBC Sports Philly’s Eagles Pregame Live and Eagles Postgame Live, while also often filling in on their Sixers’ pregame and postgame shows as well as the five-days-a-week Birds’ Huddle on the Eagles. “Talk about the number of sports Bill did in Philadelphia. He did the Phillies, Eagles and Sixers at the same time. Every team but the Flyers. That’s unbelievable. That’s eating, living and breathing sports.”
Again, sounds just like you, Michael, a seven-time winner of the Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic Sports Emmy Award and member of three Halls of Fame: East Brunswick High, Philadelphia Jewish Sports and Jewish Community Center Maccabi. Besides his coverage in Philadelphia, he spent 18 years as a sideline reporter covering U.S. Open Tennis for USA Network, four years covering the French Open, and worked three Winter Olympics in speed skating.
That’s not all. The Barkann resume also includes the 1997 Florida-Nebraska Fiesta Bowl, the World League of America Football, the XFL and World Team Tennis.
He’s even done a couple of dog shows, including one in Birmingham, England. And off the air the Barkann Family Healing Hearts Foundation, created by Michael and his wife, Ellen, to aid families in need, has raised over $3.5 million since 2011. Campbell, whom Barkann got to know a bit during their respective careers, would applaud that.
“When Bill was on WIP, I was on his show once for a segment,” recalled Barkann, who of course years later shared the WIP mike with former Eagle Ike Reese on the Mike and Ike Show. “And once we had him on Daily News Live (CSN’s signature panel show).
“I’d see him at news conferences or dinners and he always had a kind word for me. I thought he was the best. He was the broadcaster by which you measured everybody else.
“Of all the awards I’ve won in Philadelphia, none is more special than the Bill Campbell Award. It’s the honor of my professional career.”
Chances are if he were still around Bill Campbell would tell Michael Barkann, “You deserve it.”
The Philadelphia Sports Writers Association certainly agrees.