Many Familiar, Local Names On Michigan Emmy Winners List

The Michigan Emmy Awards were awarded, virtually, Saturday night, and the list of winners is filled with local names you might recognize, but also some big names whom most everybody must know.

While many names on the winners' list are from the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek-Grand Rapids television market, maybe the biggest name is Kirk Gibson. Gibson, the former football and baseball hero from Michigan State, played on the last Detroit Tigers World Series championship team in 1984. After managing the Arizona Diamondbacks, Gibson joined Fox Sports Detroit to do analysis on Tigers' telecasts. In 2015, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

Gibson won two awards, and, tangentially, was a part of a third. His two were focused on his battle against Parkinson's. One award for special event coverage and the other for a public service announcement for Gibson's Foundation.a feature. Fox Sports Detroit won for the documentary on the 1984 Tigers, "The Roar of '84", a team on which he was one of the leaders.

It was a big night for local newsrooms in our television market, with multiple Emmys going to WWMT, WOOD, WZZM and in new media, MLive. WOOD-TV's and Portage native, Ellen Bacca won two Emmys for meteorology.