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Emmy Award-Winning Sportscaster Al Trautwig ’78 to Deliver the 121st Adelphi Commencement Address on Sunday, May 21

Written by Kali Chan  |  12. May 2017

Garden City, NY - May 12, 2017 -  Adelphi University will hold its 121st Commencement on Sunday, May 21, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. at the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater, 1000 Ocean Parkway, Wantagh, NY. Al Trautwig, a 1978 graduate of Adelphi and a member of Adelphi’s Athletics Hall of Fame, will serve as the commencement speaker and be recognized with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. During the program, Board Chair Ronald B. Lee ’67 and President Christine M. Riordan will oversee the proceedings to bestow the honorary degree and confirm nearly 2,200 graduates at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s levels. A Doctoral Hooding Ceremony will be held for candidates earning the highest degree, on Friday, May 19, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of Adelphi’s Performing Arts Center (AUPAC), 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY.

Honorary Degree Recipient:

AL TRAUTWIG ’78

DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS Honoris Causa

As a student at Adelphi University, Al Trautwig ’78 majored in business but had a strong interest in sports. He had been a stick boy for the New York Islanders and a ball boy for the New York Nets when both teams played at Nassau Coliseum, not far from Garden City South, his Long Island home.

Today, Trautwig serves as both the pre- and postgame host for the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers on MSG. He also serves as a host of MSG’s weekly comprehensive hockey show, Hockey Night Live and is the host of the original series MSG Vault, where he recounts memorable moments at Madison Square Garden.

In February 2014, Trautwig reported on cross-country skiing and Nordic combined skiing as part of NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In 2012, he covered gymnastics on NBC’s Summer Olympics telecasts from London. Since 1984, Trautwig has announced 16 Olympic Games for NBC, ABC and CBS.

Throughout his career in broadcasting, Trautwig has been nominated for, and won, numerous prestigious awards. Among his honors are four national Emmy awards, 28 New York Emmys and a New York State Sportscaster of the Year award.

He credits the experiences he had working at WBAU, Adelphi’s student-run radio station, with helping him to land his first job out of college. In the summer of 1978, he convinced the New York Apollo soccer team to let him broadcast the play-by-play of every game on WBAU. After graduating, Trautwig began his broadcasting career calling New York Apollo Soccer for WMCA radio.

Over the next two years, he worked at SportsPhone, called soccer games for Cosmos radio and New York Arrows Indoor Soccer for WPIX and SportsChannel, and worked on ESPN college soccer telecasts. He went to USA Network, where he worked on more than 500 sports telecasts, including play-by-play for the North American Soccer League, NCAA College Basketball, the NHL, gymnastics, tennis and golf. Following four years at USA, Trautwig moved to ABC, where he hosted Wide World of Sports.

A member of Adelphi’s Athletics Hall of Fame, Trautwig returned to his alma mater in November 2013 to speak with Adelphi students studying sport management, and again in 2014 to address Adelphi’s first-year students at their Matriculation Ceremony.

Trautwig and his wife, Cathleen (Catallo) Trautwig ’79, met as students at Adelphi. They have a son, Alex.

For more information and the full day’s program, please contact Adelphi’s Commencement office at 516.877.4695, or visit commencement.adelphi.edu.

About Adelphi: A modern metropolitan university with a personalized approach to higher learning.

Adelphi University is a highly awarded, nationally ranked, powerfully connected doctoral research university offering exceptional liberal arts and sciences programs and professional training with particular strength in its Core Four—Arts and Humanities, STEM and Social Sciences, Business and Education Professions, and Health and Wellness. Adelphi is dedicated to transforming students’ lives through small classes, hands-on learning and innovative ways to support student success.

Founded in Brooklyn in 1896, Adelphi is Long Island’s oldest private coeducational university. Today Adelphi serves over 7,600 students at its beautiful main campus in Garden City, New York—just 23 miles from New York City’s cultural and internship opportunities—and at dynamic learning hubs in Manhattan, the Hudson Valley and Suffolk County, and online.

More than 100,000 Adelphi graduates have gained the skills to thrive professionally as active, caring citizens, making their mark on the University, their communities and the world beyond. 

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