The award, sponsored by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunications, will be presented at the annual Cronkite Award Luncheon Oct. 31 at the Phoenician Resort in Phoenix.

Michaels, who graduated from ASU in 1966 with a B.A. in Broadcasting, has covered more major sports events than any other sportscaster since joining ABC in 1976. Besides Monday Night Football, where he has been the play-by-play announcer since 1986, he was the lead baseball play-by-play announcer when the network had the rights to Major League Baseball; served as play-by-play announcer during ABC's coverage of the Stanley Cup in 1993 plus was host for the network's coverage the past three years; has hosted ABC's Indianapolis 500 coverage; and also has hosted the network's coverage of horse racing's Triple Crown series.

Michaels, regarded as one of the top baseball announcers of all time, became just the second sportscaster in history to receive a News Emmy nomination for his coverage of the San Francisco earthquake during the 1989 World Series.

He has captured four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Personality, has three times received the NSSA Award from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, was inducted into the NSSA Hall of Fame in 1998, and has twice been named Sportscaster of the Year by the American Sportscasters Association and by the Washington Journalism Review.

Michaels' most memorable call came during the U.S. hockey victory over Russia at the 1980 Winter Olympics when as the game was winding down, he announced: "Do you believe in miracles?"

Michaels, born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles, majored in radio and television and minored in journalism at ASU. After graduation, he broadcast games for the Hawaii Islanders of the PCL and football and basketball for the University of Hawaii. He left for Cincinnati in 1971, when at the age of 26 he became the top broadcaster for the Reds. In 1974 he moved to San Francisco to call games for the Giants until joining ABC in January of 1977.

Michaels and his wife, Linda, have a son, Steven, and a daughter, Jennifer.

Past award recipients of the Cronkite Award include Bob Woodward, Cokie Roberts, Ben Bradlee, Roone Arledge, Charles Kuralt, Bill Moyers, Bernard Shaw, 60 Minutes, Ted Turner, Malcolm Forbes, Katharine Graham, Otis Chandler, Bill Mauldin, William Paley and Frank Stanton.

Al Michaels