National Football Foundation

Frank Beckmann, who recently retired as the University of Michigan play-by-play announcer on the Michigan IMG Radio Network, will be the 2014 recipient of the NFF Chris Schenkel Award. Presented annually since 1996, the award recognizes individuals that have had long, distinguished careers broadcasting college football with direct ties to a specific university. 

“Frank Beckmann has had an exceptional broadcasting career with the Wolverines, spanning more than thirty years, and during that time, his voice has become synonymous with one of the greatest college football traditions in the country,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “We are pleased to honor Frank Beckmann with the 2014 NFF Chris Schenkel Award as a tribute to all of his accomplishments.” 

Beckmann completed 33 years as the play-by-play voice of Michigan football this fall (1981-2013), and he represents only the second individual – Bob Ufer – to handle the duties for the flagship broadcast of Michigan football in the previous 65 years. Beckmann began calling play-by-play for the Wolverines in 1981. He has hosted a daily weekday talk show on WJR-AM in Detroit since 2004. 

A Michigan native, Beckmann took his first radio job in 1969 at an AM station in Alpena, working as a one-man news staff. Six months later he landed at WPON-AM in Pontiac, where he did play-by-play for the Midwest Football League’s Pontiac Arrows. 

After stints at WKNR-AM in Dearborn, WDRQ-FM and Channel 2, Beckmann joined the WJR news staff in 1972. As news reporter he specialized in the kind of hard-hitting reporting that won him numerous awards, including the National Headliner. He also received a citation for “Best Coverage of a Single News Event” during the Hoffa Disappearance. 

Three years after joining the news team, Beckmann switched to the WJR sports staff. He would become sports director, lead announcer for the Detroit Lions, and in 1981, he succeeded Bob Ufer as the play-by-play announcer for University of Michigan football. 

A member of the state of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, Beckmann has claimed numerous awards for his talents and achievements. The Associated Press and United Press International named him “Top Michigan Sportscaster,” and the National Association of Sportscasters voted him “Michigan's Sportscaster of the Year.” In 2003, the Letterwinners M Club honored him as a “Honorary ‘M’ Man.” 

During his three-decade career in Ann Arbor, Beckmann covered some of Michigan’s greatest coaches and student-athletes, including College Football Hall of Fame coaches Bo Schembechler and Lloyd Carr, Hall of Fame players Anthony Carter and Desmond Howard and NFF National Scholar-Athletes Norman Betts, Brian Griese, Stefan Humphries, Chris Hutchinson and Rob Renes. His time at Michigan has included the 1997 national championship, 12 Big Ten championships, two Heisman Trophy winners and countless legendary calls. 

Beckmann becomes the first-ever recipient of the award from a state of Michigan school, and he represents only the fourth recipient with ties to the Big Ten Conference, joining broadcasters Ray Christensen (2000, Minnesota), Bob Brooks (2002, Iowa) and Johnny Holliday (2006, Maryland).