Bill Raftery, former La Salle University men’s basketball captain and current CBS Sports college basketball analyst, will receive the Annual Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame during the 2006 Enshrinement Weekend, September 7-9 in Springfield, Mass. The Curt Gowdy Media Award is named in honor of legendary broadcaster and past president of the Hall of Fame, Curt Gowdy. The award was established by the Board of Trustees to recognize members of the electronic and print media for outstanding contributions to basketball. Raftery, who will begin his 25th season as an analyst for CBS Sports’ college basketball coverage, began his broadcasting career as co-host of ESPN’s “College Hoops Tonight” in 1980. He began calling New Jersey Nets games in 1982 and has built a reputation as one of the most insightful, beloved and charismatic color analysts in the game. Raftery has called hundreds of collegiate games and scores of NCAA Tournament contests. Raftery captained the Explorers as a senior at La Salle after a three-year playing career in which he averaged 14.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Following graduation he was drafted by the New York Knicks but quickly shifted his focus to coaching with head coaching positions in his home state of New Jersey at Fairleigh Dickinson – Madison (1963-68) and Seton Hall (1970-81). Raftery received an honorary doctorate from La Salle in 2001 and was inducted into the University’s Hall of Athletes in 2004. Previous winners of the Curt Gowdy Award (Electronic) have included CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz (2002), Dick Enberg (1995) and Billy Packer (1996), Curt Gowdy (1990), Marty Glickman (1991), Chick Hearn (1992), Johnny Most (1993), Cawood Ledford (1994), Marv Albert (1997), Dick Vitale (1998), Bob Costas (1999), Hubie Brown (2000) and Dick Stockton (2001).