A Morehead State University alum who went on to soar in sports broadcasting has received one of the field's highest honors.
Marc Herklotz (Class of 1981) was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in December 2025. Herklotz worked on the technical side of broadcasting for over 30 years and had a special interest in sports broadcasting. Under ESPN's umbrella of sporting events, Herklotz worked directly with Sunday Night Baseball and Football, Monday Night Football and Home Run Derbies.
When Herklotz got the phone call about being a part of the 2025 induction class, he said it was a surreal moment for him.
"My last game was the Yankees vs. Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 28, 2019, so it had been a number of years since I retired, and all of a sudden I get this call that I am being inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame," Herklotz said. "It took me a while to process that, but when it finally sunk in, I thought this was just a complete cherry on top of my career. I could have never asked for anything more, and then this happened, and it is incredible to be recognized by your peers."
Before Herklotz's big break in broadcasting, he was a student at Morehead State studying music. He said he decided to come to MSU because of its music program, but after visiting WCET in Cincinnati, his whole college career changed.
"My older sister went to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and she had a roommate who was an employee of the PBS station in Cincinnati, WCET, Channel 48. She offered us a tour of the station and took us to a control room at WCET. They had vital switchers in their control rooms, and I was like, 'Whoa, I think that's what I want to do,' you know," said Herklotz. "It was something that caught my attention, and I thought I could really make a living at this. So, I came back, and I changed my major, and I started working at WMKY right away."
As a student at Morehead State, Herklotz worked on a variety of shows at WMKY, such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition and more. He said even though he switched his major from music to TV/radio journalism, he was still involved in the music department.
"We started a show with Jay Flippin, a legendary jazz professor in Baird (Music Hall). I was taking piano lessons from him when I was still a music major, and we became good friends," Herklotz said. "We concocted this idea to do a show at WMKY with him being the host, and I was running the board, and it was called Jazz Line."
Looking back at his career and time at Morehead State, Herklotz said he appreciated the training and classes he received as a student.
"I think that the University prepared me mostly as a human being because it was that liberal arts education that helped me grow as a person," he said. "Whereas if I had not gone to Morehead or if I had not gone to college, I don't think I would be as rounded of a human being because there is all of these experiences that I had over those four-and-a-half years of really unique, collective group of friends that I made because you know there was kids from all over the country going to Morehead at the time."
For more information about Herklotz's career and the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, visit their website.
To learn more about the Department of Communication, Media, Art & Design programs, please email cmad@moreheadstate.edu or call 606-783-2766.