Bob Costas H’15 to Receive Dressler Leadership Award at 2025 Mirror Awards

Bob Costas H’15, one of the most recognizable and authoritative broadcasters in sports whose iconic career includes a record 29 Emmy Awards, will receive the Fred Dressler Leadership Award at the Mirror Awards ceremony June 9 in New York City.

ICT, a nonprofit multimedia news platform that covers the Indigenous world, will receive this year’s Lorraine Branham Award. The honors were announced Thursday by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, which sponsors the Mirrors.

The Dressler Award is named after Fred Dressler ’63, an influential figure in the cable broadcasting industry until his death in 2007. The award honors individuals or organizations that have made distinct and consistent contributions to the public’s understanding of the media.

Few journalists have done it better or as eloquently as Costas, who has more Emmys than any other sports broadcaster. The versatile Costas has been recognized for excellence in hosting, play-by-play, writing, journalism, interviewing, news and entertainment.

Costas has hosted 12 Olympic Games and seven Super Bowls. He has called or hosted 10 NBA Finals and seven World Series. In addition, Costas hosted the Triple Crown horse races and golf’s U.S. Open for NBC. He has been part of the MLB Network since its inception in 2009, covering a sport he has often said is his favorite.

Costas is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s broadcasting wing and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has been named National Sportscaster of the Year eight times.

Also a member of the WAER Hall of Fame, Costas began his professional career at WSYR-TV and radio in Syracuse in 1973 while attending Newhouse before joining KMOX radio in St. Louis the following year.

Branham Award

Established in 2021 in honor of late Newhouse Dean Emerita Lorraine Branham, the award recognizes a media organization that has worked to promote inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility over the previous year. 

The 2025 honoree, ICT, reaches audiences through digital and broadcast platforms. At the core of ICT’s mission is telling stories about Indigenous communities by Indigenous journalists. Since its inception in 1981 as The Lakota Times weekly newspaper, ICT has grown into the largest multimedia news organization serving Native American communities.

Today, Phoenix-based ICT is owned by IndiJ Public Media, which has five regional bureaus across the country with plans to open five more in the next three years. This localized approach to reporting allows ICT to disseminate stories written and produced by Indigenous journalists through accessible, free, digital and broadcast channels, providing millions of people with news about Indigenous communities around the country every day.

The Dressler and Branham awards are the featured non-juried prizes at the annual Mirror Awards event.

About the Mirror Awards

Established by the Newhouse School in 2006, the Mirror Awards are the preeminent competition in the field of media industry reporting. Prizes are awarded in four juried categories, recognizing the reporters, editors and writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public’s benefit.

The competition is open to anyone who conducts reporting, commentary or criticism of the media industries in a format intended for a mass audience. Eligible work includes print, broadcast and online editorial content focusing on the development or distribution of news and entertainment. Winners are chosen by a group of journalists and journalism educators.