Steve Holman has accumulated a long list of honors over his nearly four decades in Atlanta.
The radio voice of the Hawks is about to add another. A significant one.
You can count on Holman being around for awhile longer to call Hawks game. The team is in the final stages of a signing Holman to a new contract.
Holman will be one of five inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame Friday night. The Class of 2017 includes former Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking, former Atlanta Track Club and Peachtree Road Race director Julia Emmons, former Hawks assistant coach Bob Reinhart and former TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager.
“This is a big one,” Holman said this week. “They are all important and they are all great. To be in the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame and you start to look at the names like Bobby Jones. …”
Those honored make up an impressive list and Holman can cite most of them. He mentions those he has worked with over the years such as Falcons greats Jeff VanNote and Steve Bartkowski and Braves greats Bobby Cox and Dale Murphy. He notes those with the Hawks, the organization where he spent the past 32 years as the radio voice, including Lou Hudson and Dominique Wilkins.
And of course some of his fellow broadcasters, such as Ernie Johnson Sr., Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren.
“To be in with all those great announcers is an honor,” Holman said. “To be in the same hall of fame with people who actually played is terrific. It’s hard to believe when I came here in 1980 that 37 years later I would be in the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame.”
Holman will be introduced by fellow hall of famer Bill Hartman. Wilkins was unable to do the honors as he will be at the NBA All-Star Game.
Holman said he has a connection to everyone in the Class of 2017. Sager will be inducted posthumously after the broadcasting icon passed away in December.
“I’ve known Craig for all these years, since I got to Atlanta,” Holman said. “We had a lot of drinks at Jocks and Jills over the years and a lot of fun. When they announced the names I was hoping he was going to hold on long enough to make it. It will be a bitter-sweet.”
Holman said his family, including his young grandson, will be in attendance.
Holman has broadcast 2,385 consecutive regular season and playoff games for the Hawks. He is also a member of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame (2015).
“He is where he should be,” Hawks executive vice president chief revenue officer Andrew Saltzman said of Holman’s pending new deal. “He will keep his streak alive.”
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