WESTERVILLE, Ohio – Mark Bradley is the 2024 recipient of the Bill Nichols Media Award. The Bill Nichols Award was created to recognize a member of the media who has demonstrated an understanding and passion for amateur athletics, while covering the students and programs of NCAA Division III and the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC).
Bradley worked as a play-by-play and color commentator for WMOA Radio, covering the Mid-Ohio Valley area, from 1997 until his passing in 2022.
Bradley, along with John Wharff, started broadcasting Marietta College baseball games in the spring of 1997. He covered Marietta College athletic events on the radio for 26 years until losing his battle with cancer in August of 2022.
While baseball was Bradley's main sport, he also broadcasted various football, men's basketball and women's basketball games for WMOA.
As a former multi-sport athlete in high school and Division I baseball player at Ohio University, Mark was known for his honest, but kind, descriptions of the action on the field or court. He was always an advocate for the student-athlete.
Marietta College may be the last Division III baseball program that has every game broadcast live on a commercial radio station. That started under previous Bill Nichols Award winner Big John Wharff and has continued under Johnny Wharff's leadership with the help of local talent like Mark. Mark's "day job" was in the local banking and manufacturing industry, and he volunteered to work the Marietta College baseball games on the radio.
Past Award Recipients
2023 | Kevin Ruple, Baldwin Wallace
2022 | Lenny Reich, Mount Union
2021 | Jim Wharton, WTAP-TV
2020 | Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com
2019 | Mark Znidar, Columbus Dispatch/Press Pro Magazine
2018 | Chris Wenzler, John Carroll
2017 | Tom Usher, Lima News
2016 | Ed Syguda, Otterbein
2015 | Harry Paidas, Mount Union
2014 | Big John Wharff, WMOA Radio
2013 | David Glasier, Lake County News-Herald
2012 | Joe Tait, Mount Union
201 | Bill Robinson, Marietta Times
2010 | Ron Miller, The Daily Jeffersonian