Four recipients of the Tyler Bieber Memorial Scholarship have been named in recognition of the talent and commitment to a career in broadcasting tragically cut short by the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.
The collision between the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) team’s bus and a semi-trailer on April 6 claimed the lives of 16 players and staff on their way to a playoff game. Thirteen others were injured.
Bieber, a 29-year-old Humboldt native, was in his first year as a play-by-play announcer with the junior A hockey club when he died.
The Western Academy Broadcasting College in Saskatoon created the scholarship to be awarded to applicants who best represent the qualities demonstrated by Bieber.
“He was one of those rare individuals who by his own initiative, launched his own broadcast career without any broadcast training, but simply by sheer determination and natural raw talent,” read a press release from the school.
“Tyler started down the path of a professional broadcast career in an entry-level station. He would be in the station at 5 a.m. preparing the morning sportscast. He knew his information so well that co-workers observed him doing an entire sportscast from just a handful of scribbled notes.”
“Doing play-by-play for the Humboldt Bronco hockey team was especially an ‘adrenaline rush’ for Tyler … What he could have accomplished and what his life could have achieved, we are only left to wonder, but most certainly with his talent and spirit, accomplishments would have been extraordinary.”
The ongoing scholarships will provide a legacy to the memory of the sports announcer and the 15 other crash victims. The $10,000 award will be handed out yearly to one student or multiple students who aspire to be sportscasters.
Scholarship applications are available online or by calling the Western Academy Broadcasting College at 306-665-1771.
-With files from Ryan Kessler
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