AHL hands out Ken McKenzie Award
Published on August 7, 2003 under American Hockey League (AHL) News Release
SPRINGFIELD, MA ... The American Hockey League has named Cincinnati Mighty Ducks vice president of communications and broadcasting Don Helbig the winner of the Ken McKenzie Award for the 2002-03 season. The award, recognizing the important role played by team management in building a successful franchise, is presented annually to an AHL team executive who most successfully promotes his or her own club.
A 14-year veteran of the hockey front office, Helbig has been with the Mighty Ducks since their inception in Cincinnati in 1997. His tireless efforts, educating the community and the local media about the organization and the American Hockey League, provide the Mighty Ducks with recognition in an extremely competitive sports market.
Helbig handles all of the team's public and media relations matters, including management of the team's Web site, writing and distributing daily team notes and game recaps, managing the Cincinnati Gardens press box, and writing and editing the club's annual media guide, one of the most comprehensive team publications in the league. He also kept the AHL Ducks' presence at the forefront this spring, reporting on the contributions of alumni to Cincinnati's parent club, the NHL's Western Conference champion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
In 2002-03, Helbig added play-by-play duties to his responsibilities, calling the action of all Mighty Ducks cybercasts on the Internet, and he co-hosted Mighty Ducks Primetime, the team's hour-long radio talk show.
The AHL's Ken McKenzie Award, first presented in 1978, honors Ken McKenzie, the founder and long-time publisher of The Hockey News and a 1997 media honoree by the Hockey Hall of Fame as the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award winner. Mr. McKenzie, the NHL's first publicity director and creator of its first media guide, passed away on Apr. 9, 2003, at the age of 79.
Previous winners of the AHL's Ken McKenzie Award include Mike Emrick (1978), Roy Mlakar (1979), Bruce Landon (1980), Rick Peckham (1982), Dave Strader (1984), Dale Arnold (1985), John Forslund (1989) and Glenn Stanford (1997).
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- AHL hands out Ken McKenzie Award - AHL
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