44th Annual Sports Emmy® Awards Honors Bryant Gumbel with a Lifetime Achievement Award | NYC VIBE

Midtown Manhattan, May 22, 2023: Bryant Gumbel was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 44th Annual Sports Emmy Awards in New York by the The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Gumbel's career has spanned more than 50 years on NBC, CBS and HBO where he has hosted “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” on HBO since 1995 receiving 36 Sports Emmys.
Gumbel, who is the first Black journalist to receive the award, told NYC VIBE that he won’t be the last and this is just the start for sports journalists of color.

Of the many stories covered by “Real Sports” the one that stands out the most for Gumbel is the 2003 feature and interview with Marcus Dixon, who received a 10-year prison sentence accused of having sex with an underage girl. Georgia's Supreme Court reversed the aggravated child molestation conviction but ruled that the statutory rape conviction would stand. Dixon did serve a one-year sentence for that charge.

Dixon was a Black 18-year-old and one of the top football prospects in the state of Georgia when a 15-year-old girl, who was white, accused him of rape.
Gumbel did another profile of Dixon in 2021 when he was an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Rams and is now the defensive line coach with the Denver Broncos. The 74-year old legendary sports journalists told NYC VIBE Gumbel that he was enormously proud of his role with this case.