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Mike
McManus never had any formal training before
he plunged into the cosmos of sports
journalism. Honestly,
he didn't need any. He was a natural,
both on the mic and behind the keyboard. Now
after almost 20 years of dedication to his
craft, McManus will enter the Centralia
Sports Hall of Fame as this year's VIP Award
recipient. "No
one can turn a phrase like Mike," said
Randy List, sports editor of the Centralia
Sentinel and a Hall of Fame inductee himself
in 2013. "He's one of the keenest
observers of what transpires on the field or
the court, and seamlessly transitions it to
his audience, whether it was in print or on
the air. "He's
also fair and honest in his assessment of
what took place, and often delivers it with
a quick wit that makes his broadcasts all
the more enjoyable." The
journey into journalism began somewhat
haphazardly for McManus. In the
mid-nineties Centralia Athletic director
Rick Moss needed a public address announcer
for Orphans football. McManus agreed
and his broadcast caught the ear of WRXX
radio station owner Jim Warner, who just
happened to be taking a stroll down Calumet
Street. Warner liked what he heard and
after a short audition offered McManus a
job. When
McManus, a 1987 CHS grad, ventured into
print he had only one byline to his name, an
album review for the high school newspaper
back in 1987. But he had big ambitions
for life as an ink-stained scribe. "The
newspaper changed my life," he
said. "I wanted to do more than
just go out and cover the games. I
wanted to break stories ahead of the bigger
papers. I wanted to write features and
columns." McManus
did all that and more during his time at the
Centralia Sentinel. People trusted
what they were reading when they read his
copy. The
46 year-old said one of his biggest thrills
in the iz was being able to cover the 2011
Orphans' basketball team's second place
finish at state in Peoria for both the radio
and the paper. "Knowing
that there were people hours away gathered
around radios listening to our call of the
game, that was really special," McManus
said. McManus
fancied sports from an early age. He
recalled a memory of receiving tickets to
the Centralia Holiday Tournament as a
stocking-stuffer when he was seven years
old. He spent all day at Trout Gym,
enamored at the action he witnessed on the
hardwood.
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