LAS CRUCES, N.M., Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Friday's football game between New Mexico State and California-Berkeley may be the first college sports event to be broadcast in Navajo.
Cuyler Frank will be doing the play-by-play with Daryl Multine as his color analyst. Both New Mexico students come from Newcomb on the Shiprock Navajo Reservation.
"We're going to be representing not only Navajos but all the Native American students here," Frank, who is pursuing a double major in communications and engineering, said. "Hopefully this helps Navajos and Native Americans see they can get into media work."
Sean Johnson, media director for the New Mexico State athletics department, said he got the idea of a Navajo broadcast when he picked up a Navajo station on his radio. While tonight's broadcast will be available only through computer streaming, Johnson hopes eventually to go to broadcast.
Frank said he has had lots of informal practice, commenting on games from the bleachers in Navajo. He said the biggest problem is that the language has no words for football terms like touchdown, so he will have to improvise.
