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Now entering his 12th season as the play-by-play television voice for the
Hawks, Bob Rathbun will call games on the Hawks' FSN South/SportSouth package.
Rathbun earned his fifth Southeastern Regional Emmy from the National
Association of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) earlier this year for his
work on Atlanta Braves games. He was also the 1998 Georgia Sportscaster of the
Year as voted on by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
Rathbun has served as the college basketball play-by-play announcer for the ACC
Television Network through Raycom/JP Sports since 1988. He also handled
play-by-play duties on Braves games for FSN South and Turner South from
1997-2006.
With an extensive sports background, Rathbun's broadcasting career has earned
him six Virginia Sportscaster of the Year honors (1980-82, 1985, 1988-89), a
Distinguished Service Award from the ACC (1994), and a Distinguished Alumni
Award from Catawba College (1988). He was inducted into his alma mater’s Sports
Hall of Fame in 2006.
He has also worked with most of the major sports broadcast properties (including
the NCAA basketball tournament for CBS and the College World Series for ESPN) at
one time or another, in addition to handling play-by-play duties for the Detroit
Tigers (1992-94).
In August 2004, Rathbun was hired to spearhead the Atlanta Spirit Speaker's
Bureau, where he works on increasing the profile of the Atlanta Spirit
properties — Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena — through speaking engagements
with civic, community, religious and other local groups.
Rathbun, who graduated with a bachelor of arts in speech from Catawba College
(1976), and his wife Marybeth have two children, Courtland and Grace.