MLB Broadcaster to deliver Keresty Lecture

BETHANY, W.Va. – The voice of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners will deliver the 2020 John Keresty Lecture at Bethany College.

Dave Sims ’75 has won back-to-back Washington Sportscaster of the Year awards from the National Sports Media Association. He also co-hosts “Basketball & Beyond with Coach K” for Sirius XM with Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski, is a correspondent for MLB Network and calls Big East college basketball on FS1.

Sims’ lecture, “A Decade of Change,” is the signature event of the 59th annual Communications and Media Arts Week. It will be at 6 p.m. Oct. 22 via Zoom.

The week’s theme is “Meeting the Challenge: Clear Thinking in a Moment of Messiness.”

Sims joined the Mariners broadcast team 14 seasons ago. He began his career as a sportswriter for the New York Daily News before becoming a weekend sports anchor for WCBS-TV. He joined ESPN as a play-by-play announcer for college basketball in 1991. From 1998 to 2014, he did NFL play-by-play, including for Sunday Night and Monday Football, and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for Westwood One.

From 1998 to 2007, Sims and his wife, Abby, ran “AthletiSense,” an athletes media coaching program that worked with football and basketball teams in the PAC-12, Big East, Big 12, Atlantic 10, and Mountain West.

The Keresty Lecture series was established in 2009 to honor the memory of John Gregory Keresty, a 1963 graduate of Bethany College and a business executive who loved the printed word. A bequest from his estate and additional gifts fund the lectures, which examine current topics, trends, and issues pertaining to the changing face of journalism.

In addition to the Keresty Lecture, Communications Week will include specialized lectures from Bethany College faculty.

At 1 p.m. Oct. 21, assistant professor Olga Blackledge will address “Advertising in Digital, Social, and Mobile Media.” At 12:30 p.m. Oct. 22, visiting professor Rick Clancy will discuss “The Media and Political Globalization.” At 11 a.m. David DeIuliis, assistant professor and chair of Communications and Media Arts, will address Sensory Theories of Visual Communication.

The faculty lectures are designed for prospective Bethany College students who are interested in the communications program.

ABOUT BETHANY COLLEGE

Bethany College, founded in 1840, is the oldest private college in West Virginia. The Bethany experience focuses on academic excellence in the area of liberal arts and prepares students for a lifetime of work and a life of significance.