Sports Central's Jim Hill receives 77th Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award

Sports Central's Jim Hill receives 77th Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award

Sports Central's Jim Hill receives 77th Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award 01:07

The Television Academy today named Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Jim Hill as the recipient of the 77th Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award, recognizing his acclaimed five-decades-long career in broadcasting. The surprise announcement was made by Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy, on KCAL News.  

Jim Hill will receive the 77th Los Angeles Area Emmy® Governors Award, recognizing his acclaimed five-decades-long career in broadcasting. 

"You have been an icon in this industry for many years, specifically in Los Angeles," Abrego said while telling Hill he would be receiving the award. "I am a born-and-raised Angeleno. I grew up watching you, watching the sports highlights with my dad. This is an incredible honor to tell you that you have been selected to receive the Los Angeles area Emmy Governors Award this year."

Hill will be presented the Governors Award on July 26 at the Skirball Cultural Center.

"It's not often I get speechless, but this time I am," Hill said. "This is a day I will never forget ... I am truly honored."

Every year, the LA Area Governors Award committee selects an individual, company, or organization that has made a substantial contribution to the greater LA area while accomplishing innovative, outstanding, and visionary achievements in the arts, sciences, or management of television.

"You go really beyond sports," Abrego said to Hill. "It was really you who brought this empathy to humanizing our heroes here, specifically here in LA. I look at you as this incredible storyteller that goes beyond just the kind of performance on the field for these athletes, you've really humanized them."

Hill has been a fixture in the LA sports scene for nearly 50 years, garnering a reputation as one of the most respected anchors in the industry. He began his broadcasting career as a disc jockey and talk show host at KINE AM in Kingsville, Texas, while also playing football at Texas A&I University, now known as Texas A&M-Kingsville. 

In 1968, Hill began his professional sports career after the San Diego Chargers drafted him 18th overall in the 1968 NFL draft. He went on to play for the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns until leaving the league in 1975. 

A year later, he reignited his broadcast career as a sportscaster for CBS Los Angeles, where he spent the next 11 years before joining KABC-TV. After a four-year stint at KABC, Hill returned to CBS in March 1992 and remains with the KCBS/KCAL duopoly to this day. 

Since 1992, Hill has witnessed the LA sports teams win 16 championships. Most recently, he was in the locker room after the LA Dodgers won the World Series in 2024.

Hill joins Southern California sports broadcasting icons Stu Lantz, Bob Miller, Chick Hearn and Vin Scully as a Governor's Award recipient.  

Outside of his sports broadcasting career, Hill has been an active philanthropist in the community. He served as the chair of LA County's anti-drug program, "Just Say No," sat on the board of directors for the LA Urban League, chaired the Watts Summer Game, became president of Athletes for Kids and served as a member of the advisory board for the Grossman Burn Center.