“Syracuse was like my dream,” the Bloomington native said. “If money wasn’t an object, I would have gone there. Bob Costas went to Syracuse. Marv Albert went there.”

But four years later Twork does not have to take a back seat to anyone.

He was named the winner of the second annual Jim Nantz Award as the top collegiate sports broadcaster in the U.S. for his work with WEIU-FM (88.9).

In the award presented by the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America, two of the other finalists on the list were — you guessed it — from Syracuse.

“I probably paid much less money than they did and probably got more experience,” Twork said. “I took advantage of every opportunity I had. Just to represent Eastern Illinois University makes me very happy.”

Two years ago, Twork broadcast the Panthers’ Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament championship on its way to the NCAA Tournament. Last fall he was the sideline reporter for EIU football home broadcasts of a team that won the OVC title.

He also spent time broadcasting games for the Charleston High School girls basketball team that won an Apollo Conference title.

But his most extensive work at Eastern came broadcasting women’s basketball. Since his freshman year the team went from another losing season to three straight trips to OVC tournament title games.

Going from color commentator to play-by-play the past season, Twork announced Eastern’s first OVC women’s basketball regular-season title.

Those opportunities came partly because Twork got his career started while at Bloomington High School, where he created his own website ,Raiderradio.com, and broadcast boys and girls basketball games.

“When John sent us his broadcast tape four years ago we knew we had our next broadcasting star,” Rob Calhoun, the production supervisor at WEIU-FM, said. “He was so polished; his voice sounded like he was 30 years old.”

Twork’s progress in the profession continued largely through the direction of EIU’s football and men’s basketball play-by-play announcer Mike Bradd, also a professor at the university.

“First and foremost, I’d have to say a big thank you to Mike Bradd,” Twork said. “He told me about this STAA and to send them tapes. I probably wouldn’t have known about it had he not encouraged me.”

Next in Twork’s career is a graduate assistant position at Illinois State, where he is to be the university’s main media relations contact for baseball while broadcasting those games as well as some volleyball matches.