By Drew Olson Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Oct 05, 2007 at 3:53 PM

Longtime Bucks TV announcer Jim Paschke will be enshrined in the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame as a "Friend of the Game" in a ceremony Saturday night in Madison.

Paschke, who has been calling Bucks games since 1986, will join fellow inductees like Tony Smith, a former star at Wauwatosa East, Marquette and in the NBA, Dick Bennett, the former coach at the University of Wisconsin as well as UW-Green Bay and UW-Stevens Point, and John Cary, the executive director of the MACC Fund.

"It's an honor," Paschke said. "I guess that means I've been at this a long time."

The WBCA Hall of Fame was originally established to recognize coaches in the state of Wisconsin, but in recent years the group has branched out to honor players, broadcasters and others who have helped sustain the sport of basketball in the state.

The WBCA has about 3,000 members and hosts a variety of basketball clinics and games throughout the course of the year. The WBCA All-Star games are held every June, featuring the best high school senior male and female basketball players in the state, and all proceeds are donated to the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer (MACC) Fund.

 

Last summer's games raised $106,000 for cancer research and over 1.3 million dollars has been raised by the WBCA for the MACC Fund since 1978. The proceeds from this year's games will be presented to the MACC Fund during the annual Milwaukee Bucks MACC Fund game (Saturday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m.).

Drew Olson Special to OnMilwaukee.com

Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.