Three Sports Figures To Receive Presidential Medal Of Freedom

One of the great baseball broadcasters of all time will now add another accomplishment to his lengthy resume: Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient. Vin Scully, the legendary baseball broadcaster who has worked as the voice of the Dodgers for over sixty years, will be given the award by President Obama next week. Scully is one of the twenty one American citizens receiving the medal.  However Scully is not the only presidential medal of freedom recipient with a sports connection. Former Chicago Bull Michael Jordan and former Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will also be recognized during the ceremony. Both Jordan and Abdul-Jabbar are considered to be the greatest living professional basketball players. The entire list is below of all of these year's recipients. In addition the below video includes the phone call from White House informing Vin Scully about his honor next week.

2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients 

Cicely Tyson, Robert DeNiro, Robert Redford, Ellen Degeneres, Tom Hanks, Diana Ross, Bill and Melinda Gates, polymath physicist Richard Garwin, architect Frank Gehry, designer Maya Lin, “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels, attorney Newt Minow, mathematician and computer scientist Margaret H. Hamilton, and Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami Dade College in Florida.

Posthumous honors will go to Native American advocate Elouise Cobell and Rear Adm. Grace Hopper.