Oct. 4, 2006

NBC Universal Sports & Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol and NBC Universal Sports president Ken Schanzer each were presented with an honorary monogram on Saturday, Sept. 30 by the Notre Dame Monogram Club.

The presentation was made at Notre Dame Stadium at halftime of the Notre Dame-Purdue football game – by Notre Dame Monogram Club executive director Jim Fraleigh, University president Father John Jenkins and athletics director Kevin White.

The Notre Dame Monogram Club annually awards monograms to letter-winners in each of Notre Dame’s 26 varsity sports. In addition, over the years it has awarded honorary monograms to more than 200 individuals for their contributions to the program, including names such as former Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, former Notre Dame president Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C, and former Irish football coaches Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz.

Honored today were two individuals who have had a major impact both on the visibility of Notre Dame football and on the financial aid available to Notre Dame students.

Since 1991 when NBC Sports first began televising Notre Dame home football games, Irish fans have enjoyed the luxury of having each of the last 92 games from Notre Dame Stadium televised on a national basis.

In addition, the NBC relationship has provided millions of dollars in financial aid for hundreds of Notre Dame students — with the majority of the proceeds from the NBC contract devoted to financial aid.

Revenue from the NBC contract over the years has been placed in an endowment fund – and since its inception nearly 1,700 Notre Dame undergraduates have been awarded more than $16.7 million in aid. In addition, more than $10 million from NBC revenues have endowed doctoral fellowships in the Graduate School and MBA scholarships in the Mendoza College of Business. NBC’s contributions have enabled the University’s undergraduate scholarship endowment to grow from $88 million in 1988 to more than $1.1 billion as of March 2006.

In addition, presented to Ebersol was the flag that flew over Notre Dame Stadium last Nov. 5 when he and his family were part of the flag presentation prior to the 2005 Notre Dame-Tennessee game.

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Over more than three decades in television, Dick Ebersol stands alone as an executive who has played a prominent role in the wide-ranging fields of sports, entertainment and news. His crowning achievement has been establishing NBC Universal as the home of the Olympic Games through 2012. Beginning in 1967, when he temporarily dropped out of Yale University to join Roone Arledge and ABC Sports as television’s first-ever Olympic researcher, Ebersol has continually forged new paths. In 2005, Ebersol was inducted into both the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.

Ebersol serves as executive producer for “NBC Sunday Night Football,” the premier primetime game of the week. He negotiated the unprecedented six-year NFL deal, which includes innovative flexible scheduling, and continues through the 2011 season with Super Bowls in 2009 and 2012.

The most recent chapter in Ebersol’s career was serving as executive producer of NBC’s coverage of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, as he has for every Olympics since the 1992 Barcelona Games. The unprecedented coverage drove NBC to win three consecutive weeks in primetime in households and viewers for the first time in 18 months, and earned a profit of nearly $70 million for NBC Universal.

Ken Schanzer was named president of NBC Sports on June 18, 1998. He is responsible for supervising the day-to-day operation of the division. The appointment came after two stints as executive vice president of NBC Sports, first from 1983-93 and then from 1995-98.

Schanzer initially came to NBC Sports in November 1981, and served as vice president, talent and program negotiations, until his appointment as executive vice president in June 1983. Before joining NBC Sports, he served eight months as senior vice president, government relations for the National Association of Broadcasters.

Schanzer most recently played a key role in negotiating NBC’s six-year agreement with the National Football League to become the network home of the premier primetime television package, “NBC Sunday Night Football,” including innovative flexible scheduling.

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