Storholt wins first Bisher Medal
Storholt wins first Bisher Medal
Walter Storholt, a junior electronic communications major from Pine Knoll Shores, N.C., is the first recipient of the Furman Bisher Medal, which honors the legendary sports writer in Atlanta who is a 1938 UNC journalism graduate.
A group of Bisher’s friends and colleagues launched an effort to raise $100,000 for an endowment to fund an annual award recognizing a student who exemplifies the passion for sports journalism and community service exhibited by Bisher. In addition to a $5,000 cash prize, recipients receive a medal bearing Bisher’s name and likeness. The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and Hall of Fame presented the medal and cash prize in May at its annual awards banquet Salisbury.
Storholt’s journalism career began in high school as an intern with radio station WTKF. He started by filing and making coffee, and by the end of his two-year run with the station he was the voice of its East Carteret High School football broadcasts and host of a talk show.
Upon arriving in Chapel Hill, he sought out radio station WCHL and interned in its news and sports departments. He now does color commentary for local high school football games and play-by-play for high school basketball games.
He serves as the sports anchor for the journalism school's Saturday morning radio news program, Carolina Connection, and as an anchor of the television news program Carolina Week. He also does pre- and post-game reporting on Tar Heel football and men’s basketball for Carolina Connection. Walter's stories have won awards from the National Broadcasting Society, the Society of Professional Journalists and the William R. Hearst Foundation.
On Jan. 9, 2008, Storholt co-anchored the national ESPNU broadcast of the UNC vs. UNC-Asheville men’s basketball game. In April he was awarded the school's prestigious Stephen Gates Scholarship for the 2008-09 school year. This summer, he will travel to Beijing with a group of students from the school to cover the 2008 Olympic Games.
Bisher played golf with Bobby Jones; scored the only interview with Shoeless Joe Jackson; covered the first NASCAR race, every Super Bowl but the first, and more than 50 Kentucky Derbys; watched Cy Young pitch and Joe Louis box; helped bring the Braves to Atlanta; and wrote 12 books.
He has been inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame, the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame, the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, the International Golf Writers Hall of Fame, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame, located in the school.