DURHAM, N.C. (NCCUEaglePride.com) - With the 2010 football season just about set to kickoff the NCCU Sports Network announces the addition of NCCU Hall of Fame running back Joe Simmons to the broadcast team. Simmons joins play-by-play voice of the network, Chris Hooks, and versatile color analyst, Sedrick Dickens, in the booth for his first season of work with the network.
    Many Eagle fans remember Joe Simmons both as a player and a coach at NCCU. Simmons is arguably one of the greatest running backs in school history and held the school’s rushing mark until 2006, the year he was inducted into the Alex M. Rivera Hall of Fame. The Mount Airy, N.C. native racked up an impressive 2,840 yards and scored 29 touchdowns during his career. His final season was one of his best as he became the first Eagle to rush for more than 1,200 yards in a season with a school record 1,699 yards in 1993.
    Simmons also coached at NCCU from 1996 to 2003 under Larry Little, Rudy Abrams, and Rod Broadway. He was in charge of running backs, quarterbacks, and linebackers respectively during his tenure as assistant coach.
    “It’s good to be coming back and working with the people I am so familiar with,” stated Simmons. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my alma mater in an area that I am passionate about. It will be great to have a connection with the institution again and I hope to add to the continued success of an already well established group that is the NCCU Sports Network.”
    Simmons will provide even more in-depth coverage as color analyst alongside Sedrick Dickens, who returns to the booth for his third football season. Dickens is also color analyst for the men’s basketball broadcasts and is coming up on his fourth basketball season.
    Roaming the sidelines for her second season will be former two-sport student- athlete, Danielle Johnson-Webb. She has served as sideline reporter for the football broadcasts, but has also provided Eagle fans with color commentary in both of the sports she excelled in at NCCU, volleyball and women’s basketball.
    Paul Doherty returns after a stint of calling women’s basketball games for NCCU during the 2009-10 campaign. Doherty adds studio host to his resume as he will keep Eagle fans up-to-date on scores around the area, and across the nation, while also returning to for another season of play-by-play for women’s basketball during the 2010-11 season.
    Fans can tune in Thursday, Sept. 2, at 6:30 p.m. with Eagle Gameday presented by the Hilton RTP as play-by-play voice of the Eagles, Chris Hooks, and the crew get listeners all geared up for the game with live analysis, interviews with student-athletes and head coach Mose Rison, along with an in-depth scouting report in the Pregame Buzz presented by 620 The Buzz. All those features take listeners right up until toe meets leather, and will carry you into the Durham Marriott Halftime Show, all the way to the Eagles Postgame Report presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. During the postgame show, the New York Life Player of the Game will also be named.
    Coming into the 2010 season, the NCCU Sports Network added six more affiliates to its current flagship station Rejoice 1410 AM, giving Eagle fans one of the largest HBCU football radio networks in the country.
    The seven affiliates give the NCCU Sports Network a presence in the Durham area all the way east to Kinston, N.C., where WELS 1010 AM carries NCCU football for the second straight season. There are two stations in the Granville/Vance County area, WCBQ 1340 AM (Oxford, N.C.) and WHNC 890 AM (Henderson, N.C.). WYRN 1480 AM is located in Louisburg, N.C., while WXKL 1290 AM is in Sanford, N.C. The newest affiliate to the network is WEED 1390 AM in Rocky Mount, N.C., as they join the network for the first time this season. The others carried at least one or more NCCU football or basketball games during the last year. The new stations allow the NCCU Sports Network to reach around 35,000 listeners throughout the central and eastern part of the state of North Carolina.
    All this is due to the partnership between the network and Chief Engineer, Jay Bell, owner and operator of BMG, whose mission is to distribute, promote, and market college football and basketball games featuring Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while also using this opportunity to teach, train, and educate students at HBCU’s by using the latest technologies in broadcast communications.