BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Board of Directors of the State of Alabama Sports Hall of Fame is proud to announce that Rick Karle will be recognized as the 2023 Mel Allen Media Award recipient at the 55th Annual Induction Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, May 13, 2023.
The Mel Allen Media Award was created to honor media members in the State of Alabama who have made a lifetime contribution to sports through their work as a media member. The award is named after the 1974 ASHOF Inductee Mel Allen, of Birmingham, who was known as the “Voice of the New York Yankees” for two decades.
Rick Karle was born and raised in Syracuse, NY. He attended the University of New Hampshire where he received his B.A. degree in journalism. Karle spent 38 years as a TV sports anchor in Birmingham, Jacksonville, FL and Hanover, NH. Karle also worked for 30 years anchoring high school football coverage in Alabama. He joined WVTM 13 in 2019 where he currently serves as a co-host of the WVTM 13 morning news. Karle is in his 43rd year of television broadcasting. During his time in Alabama, Karle, a cancer survivor, has served as a board member for the American Cancer Society. He has also volunteered with the Big Oak Ranches, United Cerebral Palsy, and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Karle is a 24-time Emmy award winner with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The most recent Emmy that Karle was awarded was in June 2018 for “Best Sports Anchor” in the southeast. Karle has received more than 50 Emmy nominations and has won over 50 Associated Press awards, including the Alabama AP “Best Sports Anchor” award in 2017 and the AP “Best Sports Program” award for “Sideline”. He has also been recognized with six Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards and one Edward R. Murrow National Award.
Karle joins a distinguished list of others who have been honored by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame as Mel Allen Media Award recipients. They are: John Pruett (2014), George Smith (2014), Tom Roberts (2015), Ron Ingram (2017), Cecil Hurt (2019), Paul Finebaum (2020), Rubin Grant (2021), and Mark McCarter (2022).
The 55th Induction Banquet and Ceremony will be held in the Birmingham Ballroom, at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel, on Saturday, May 13, 2023. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Museum at (205) 323-6665.
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