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Eminian Wins ECHL Outstanding Media Award

June 13, 2003
PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL announced on Friday that Dave Eminian of the Peoria Journal Star is the recipient of the 2002-03 ECHL Outstanding Media Award. The inaugural award was determined in a vote of ECHL media members, media relations directors and broadcasters.

Eminian will be entering his 19th season covering the ECHL's Peoria Rivermen for the Peoria Journal Star. The 42-year-old native of Brecksville, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) covered his 1,000th Rivermen game in February of 2001, and also covers pro indoor football and special projects for the newspaper. Eminian covers the Rivermen games, including 15-20 on the road each season, plus all playoff contests, produces a weekly ECHL column and an annual Rivermen season preview section, called Ice Time, for the Journal Star. He also co-hosts a weekly Rivermen radio show with play-by-play radio veteran Norm Ulrich.

The newspaper hired Eminian, a diehard Browns and Indians fan who has covered hockey games in 25 states, from Bradley University's journalism program in 1985. He's won Associated Press awards for investigative reporting and editorial excellence, including a series that exposed financial mismanagement of a Rivermen team on the verge of folding while it was owned by city government in the late 1980s, forcing sale of the team to its current private ownership group. Eminian has covered NHL games, drafts and training camps, and worked the Rivermen in the class-AAA International Hockey League, including the 1990-91 Turner Cup champions who set a still-existing pro hockey record 18-game win streak. He also covered the IHL for five seasons for The Hockey News, submitting weekly notebooks, and later wrote columns for THN. He spearheaded the founding of the Rivermen Hockey Hall of Fame, and has covered nearly 150 former or future NHL players while members of Peoria's team. The Rivermen gave him a second championship season to cover in 1999-2000, when they won the ECHL's Kelly Cup.

"First off, the Journal Star's long commitment to its hockey coverage has allowed me to cover the Peoria Rivermen and the ECHL as if it were major league,'' Eminian said. "I have the advantage of working with a terrific Rivermen front office, and I'd like to thank league administrative officials, coaches and public relations people for their access and assistance. Most of all, there are a lot of writers in this league, like Mike Mastovich (at Johnstown), Rob Mueller (at Augusta), Christine Troyke (at Florence), Andy Kent (Florida) and Dan Saevig (Toledo) for whom I have the greatest respect, and for our coverage to win national recognition while working among such colleagues is humbling.''

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