Norm Fletcher, so nicknamed because his rich, baritone voice has narrated the ceremonies and videotape highlights at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame banquet since 1972, will be one of the recipients of this year's Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

The award will be presented Saturday at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Banquet at the Natchitoches Events Center, and two broadcasting protégés of his, Jim Hawthorne and Lyn Rollins, will make the presentation speech.

"This is a real honor," said the 79-year-old Fletcher, who was Northwestern State's "Voice of the Demons" for three decades. "It hit me especially because I am one of only five broadcasters to receive the award, and only two of us (including LSU's former "Voice of the Tigers" John Ferguson) have been play-by-play broadcasters."

Fletcher's broadcast career dates back to the late 1940s when he and his brother were being raised by a single mother since his father died at age 38 of pneumonia.

"I really wanted to be a veterinarian at the time," recalled Fletcher, a native of Natchitoches, "and I knew the only way I was going to be able to go to vet school was to get a scholarship to play football."

But a knee injury in the first game of his senior season at Natchitoches High ended his football career and his chances at a scholarship.

Needing a job, he accepted an invitation to help the play-by-play announcer at the local radio station, being a spotter and keeping statistics and occasionally talking on the air. The following year, in 1949, when Fletcher was 18, the regular play-by-play guy suddenly left, and Fletcher broadcast the rest of that season's games for both Natchitoches High and Northwestern State (then Louisiana State Normal School).

After the Korean War broke out, Fletcher decided to join the U.S. Air Force and, thanks to a lenient Naval doctor, he suggested, passed the physical exam, despite his bad knee. He went to Tokyo and learned of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) and auditioned for that division. Within a short time, he was editor-in-chief of the AFRS and its chief news and sports announcer.

Among the notable figures he interviewed during that hitch were Gen. Mark Clark and Gen. Douglas MacArthur and two-time Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. He also broadcast from Tokyo the 1952 Rice Bowl Game, which featured former All-Americans from the U.S. armed services, including a personal favoite: Army running back Doc Blanchard.

Although he considered moving on to the Air Force Network in Europe after the war, Fletcher decided he wanted to return home. After broadcasting Southwestern Louisiana games for a few years in Lafayette, he did. He persuaded an older broadcasting colleague in Lafayette that the two of them should buy the struggling radio station in Natchitoches.

"I had $3.40 in the bank," he said, "but a banker (Ed Pierson from City Bank) had confidence in me and gave me a loan."

Fletcher not only became co-owner of the radio station, he built the first TV cable system in Natchitoches and broadcast city council meetings and did in-depth reporting on the school board and the police jury. In addition to being the Voice of the Demons for 32 years, during that time he would also broadcast every local Natchitoches High (later Natchitoches Central) football and basketball game, home and on the road.

"I wouldn't have been able to be what I am without him," said Hawthorne, an Anacoco native and LSU's longtime "Voice of the Tigers," who apprenticed as a sports broadcaster under Fletcher's tutelage. "He was my best friend, my big brother and a second dad all in one. I owe my decision to make broadcasting a career to him, and I owe my passion and enthusiasm for doing play-by-play to him."

Rollins, the preeminent sports broadcaster from Central Louisiana who has called high school, college and professional games, followed in Hawthorne's footsteps as a broadcasting apprentice under Fletcher at Northwestern State.

"He was a mentor in all senses of the word," Rollins said. "He was the primary enabler that I've had in my broadcast career that allowed me to learn under his wing. He's truly an icon of small-town America.

"I think he's iconic," added Rollins, "because he wore the mantle of small-town radio in the very best sense of the word. He did it all, and he did it fairly. There was no daily newspaper in Natchitoches. He was an institution. He was indefatigable, going to the station at 5 a.m. to prepare to do the news many a time after calling a game late into the previous night. His dedication was remarkable."

Such examples of his job dedication include continuing to do the play-by-play for a Northwestern football game in Weatherford, Okla., fanning smoke from his face when the Southwestern Oklahoma State press box caught on fire, or, when the football press box at old Vivian High School had been blown down a few nights before, climbing and hugging a light pole to do the play-by-play for a prep game.

And when he did play-by-play, it could be rhapsodic.

"You could not listen to him as a passive listener," said Rollins. "He tickled your imagination with his descriptions. He had an incredibly effective voice with great range, and he could manipulate it with passion."

Fletcher continues to keep his hand in radio work as the disc-jockey for a two-hour country music show on Friday mornings and for a 5-hour gospel and Christian music show on Sunday mornings.

"I'm just starting to figure out," he said, "what I want to be when I grow up."