2025 Jim Fullerton Award Recipient George Commo Honored at Luncheon

The American Hockey Coaches Association presented the 2025 Jim Fullerton Award to longtime University of Vermont and Norwich University broadcaster George Commo on April 30 at a luncheon held at the Vermont National Country Club. The award, which was first announced in January, is named after the former Brown University hockey coach. The award inscription reads,”Named in honor of the former Brown University hockey coach and AHCA spiritual leader, this award recognizes an individual who loves the purity of our sport. Whether a coach, administrator, trainer, official, journalist or simply a fan, the recipient exemplifies Jim Fullerton, who gave as much as he received and never stopped caring about the direction in which our game was heading.”

After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1972 with a degree in broadcasting, Commo began his broadcast career as a tape jockey and news reader at an automated FM radio station in Burlington, hoping that would lead him to something better. His hope became a reality in 1974 when he was given the sports anchor job at ABC 22 in Burlington. He was in the right place at the right time. In March of 1975 Vermont, in their first year in Division One Hockey, advanced to the ECAC semi-finals at the Boston Garden. ABC 22 secured the broadcast rights to the games and Commo was given the play-by-play assignment. His first play-by-play job was calling those games in the TV38 booth at the Garden.

Two years later Commo moved to WVMT Radio to serve as the pregame and postgame show host on Catamount Sports Network coverage of UVM Hockey, and when play-by-play man Tom Cheek left later that fall to become the first voice of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays, Commo stepped up to the play-by-play job.

He would hold that position for 18 seasons, working with coaches Jim Cross and Mike Gilligan, and getting to call the on-ice exploits of many Vermont greats including Craig Homola, Louis Cote, Kirk McCaskill, Kyle McDonough, Ian Boyce, Aaron Miller, John LeClair, Martin St. Louis, Eric Perrin and Tim Thomas.

During those years Commo also called many seasons of UVM basketball and baseball and the full gamut of Vermont high school sports, including numerous Vermont Principals Association tournament action in hockey, basketball, football and baseball. He also served as the TV play-by-play voice of ECAC Hockey.

Commo moved on to WDEV Radio in Waterbury, Vermont, in the fall of 1998, where he became the play-by-play voice of Norwich University Hockey. He would continue in that role for 25 seasons, working with coaches Mike McShane and Cam Ellsworth, describing the Cadets’ numerous ECAC and NCAA tournament runs, including four NCAA National Championships. While at WDEV, he also did Norwich football, and served as one of the primary voices of their extensive stock car racing coverage. Commo has also been the primary play-by-play voice for the Vermont Expos and Lake Monsters baseball for more than 20 years.

In 2000 he started his own production company, Vermont Broadcast Sports, to serve as an outlet for the coverage of Burlington area high school sports. In 2008, VBS joined forces with the Northeast Sports Network and Commo has served as a primary play-by-play voice and sales rep for NSN ever since. At NSN, he has called every high school and college sport you can think of, including VPA State tournaments in football, soccer, hockey, basketball, baseball and lacrosse.

An eleven-time Vermont Sportscaster of the Year, Commo has been inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame, the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Norwich University Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Rice Memorial High School Athletic Hall of Fame. He was honored with the Warner Fusselle Award for Excellence in Broadcasting by baseball’s New York Penn League, and the Monahan & Wallace Media Award by the ECAC Sports Information Directors Association. And later this spring he will be inducted into the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.

A father of three sons, Keven, Anthony and Jack, he and his wife Dot live in Burlington.