 |
WRAL Legend Honored with Lifetime Achievement and Hall of Fame
|
 |
| Mark Roberts (left) presents the Capital Ford Lifetime Achievement Award to legendary WRAL Sports Anchor Tom Suiter. |
 |
Longtime WRAL-TV Sports Anchor Tom Suiter is used to giving the Extra Effort Award to deserving student-athletes, but lately he’s been on the receiving end of some well-deserved honors. Capital Ford recently presented him with a Lifetime Sports Achievement Award as Suiter was preparing to be inducted into the Twin County Hall of Fame.
Capital Auto Group Spokesman Mark Roberts currently hosts WRAL-TV’s Brain Game and previously worked as a reporter at WRAL for many years. He explained how Capital Ford chose to honor Suiter:
There are many long-time, old school Channel 5 fans among the staff and management of Capital Ford. One of the top sales managers told me how excited he was when Bob DeBardelaben [former WRAL-TV Anchor] showed his drawing on the evening news when he was a kid.
The owner, Tim Michael is a huge Channel 5 fan. Tim and I talk about Football Friday each Monday morning complete with my spot-on Tom Suiter impersonation. Several weeks back, we talked about all those years Tom has done the show, and how much energy and zip he brings to covering high school athletics. No one else, anywhere, comes even close.
We decided that Tom deserved some special recognition, so we came up with the Lifetime Sports Achievement Award.
I am still great friends with Tom, and I actually shot a few games for Football Friday for him back in the 90’s, so we had a blast at the official award presentation. WRAL-TV’s Kevin Shand taped it and a brief snippet will be shown on the show on November 29th.
In the same week Suiter became a member of the Twin County Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place on Thursday, November 14th.
A Rocky Mount native, A Rocky Mount native, Suiter joined the staff of WRAL-TV in Raleigh in 1971 as a sports reporter. Ten years later he became the sports anchor and began two long lasting series – Football Friday which focuses on high school football games around the state, and the Extra Effort Award. That award recognizes scholar athletes who shine off the playing field too.
Learn more about his Twin County Hall of Fame honor, along with the other inductees here:
Thanks to Mark Roberts for these capcom photos. Thanks to Roberts & WRALSportsFan.com for contributions to this capcom story.
