NSSA Honors Rocky Erickson

The staff at Northern Broadcasting System is proud to announce that for the 9th time, our Network sports director Rocky Erickson has won the Montana Sportscaster of the Year Award presented by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. The award is given annually to one individual from each state who is nominated and chosen by their peers.

Of the 50 state sportscaster winners, only four others have won the award more times than Erickson. The last time Erickson won the award was in 2009.

Erickson says it is very humbling for him to win. He tells the story of the first year that he attended the awards back in 1990, “They had all of the state winners line up outside on the patio by state alphabetical order. In front of me was Jack Buck the play-by-play announcer of the St. Louis Cardinals, the two guys behind me were the announcers for the New York Knicks and Nebraska Cornhuskers. One of them asked what I did in Montana, and I proudly said, ‘I announce high school basketball!’”

Erickson announces both football and basketball games regularly for Billings West and Billings Central and has announced over 2000 high school and college games including 50 state championship games. In addition to announcing, Erickson produces a daily sports show across over 40 radio stations on the Northern Sports Network and is the News Director at Northern Broadcasting System, the parent company of Northern News and Sports Networks.

Erickson will attend the 57th annual NSSA awards weekend in Salisbury, North Carolina this June. National sportscaster of the year Mike “Doc” Emrick of NBC Sports will present Rocky with his award. Other honorees at the NSSA awards include Chris Berman of ESPN and Billy Packer of CBS Sports who will both be inducted into the NSSA hall of fame.