The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has announced its 2023 Hall of Fame inductee class – and it features two prominent figures from the sports media industry in David Roberts and Rob Parker. The induction ceremony will take place on Friday, Aug. 4 in Birmingham, Ala. and honors legendary Black media professionals who have made contributions to the business.
“As we gather for our annual convention in a place that shines as a beacon of light in the fight for justice and equality, NABJ is excited to recognize some of the most courageous barrier breakers and history makers in the journalism and media industries,” said NABJ President Dorothy Tucker in a statement. “We will also have the honor of celebrating some of the game-changers of the future of news and communications – perfectly underscoring our 2023 theme, ‘From Revolution to Evolution.’”
Roberts is the head of event and studio production at ESPN and was recently promoted to oversee all college sports for the network, excluding baseball and football. Before rising to his current role, Roberts world as a senior coordinating producer for ESPNEWS and had oversight regarding the simulcast agreement of The Michael Kay Show on YES Network. Additionally, he served as the general manager of ESPN New York 98.7 and inked multiyear broadcast rights deals to present games for the New York Jets, New York Knicks and New York Rangers over the airwaves.
Aside from his responsibilities on broadcasts of the NBA on ESPN, Roberts leads the production of several flagship studio programs such as Get Up, Around the Horn and First Take. Throughout his media career, he has worked with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and coordinated live First Take programs from several different campuses. Roberts has also been a member of the Jackie Robinson Foundation Board of Directors since 2020, the same year he was named to the Cablefax Diversity List as one of the most influential and diverse executives in the business. Over this past weekend, Roberts was married to his fiancé, T’Erica, in a ceremony attended by various ESPN personalities and staffers in Atlanta, Ga.
Parker got his start in sports media at the Detroit Free Press in 1993 as the paper’s first Black sports columnists, and quickly began making contributions to local broadcast news as a sports reporter. He made the transition to the national airwaves in 2005 as a contributor on First Take, but was suspended from the network after making controversial comments about NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III. Shortly thereafter, Parker was dismissed from the network after giving an interview where he made assumptions about how ESPN personnel were affected by what he said.
Today, Parker works as a sports anchor for 7 Action News in Detroit, Mich. and is the co-host of The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard on FOX Sports Radio. Moreover, he has occasionally made appearances across FOX Sports 1 programming, most notably on Undisputed. Parker is also the host of the Inside the (Rob) Parker podcast and The MLBbro Show Podcast – The Mixtape, an extension of the website (MLBbro) that he founded to cover Black and brown major leaguers.
Other inductees into the NABJ Hall of Fame include Emmy Award-winning journalist Sheila Dean Brooks, Ph.D.; founder and publisher of The Birmingham Times, Dr. Jesse Lewis; and Emmy Award-winning television broadcaster and reporter for WTTG FOX5DC, Gwen Tolbart. The convention and career fair will also hand out special honors for journalists, students, educators and other media professionals, some of which will be announced on site.
