“There’s no bigger smile on my face than when I’m broadcasting hockey,” Eva Hallman ’26 says.

Hallman, a student in Butler’s College of Communication (CCOM), made Indianapolis sports history as the first woman broadcaster for the professional hockey team Indy Fuel, donning the headset alongside Play-by-Play Broadcaster Andrew Smith. The sophomore Journalism and Strategic Communication double major has spent the year gaining real-world experience as a communications intern and color commentator for Indy Fuel.

Color commentating requires a quick wit, statistical savvy, and familiarity with the sport and players to keep fans immersed during stoppages. Hallman considers this internship a game-changer for her career path—but she wasn’t always comfortable with the sports spotlight. Before she could become a dynamic commentator, she had to find her voice.

Hockey was a staple sport in the Hallman family growing up. She attended her first Fort Wayne Komets game at six months old and followed the team up to their first ECHL title win in 2021. But in high school, Hallman’s involvement in sports took a backseat to her interest in communications. She decided to sign up for her school’s speech and debate program.

“I chose the broadcasting category because I wanted a controlled environment, a script, and I didn’t want judges to be able to see me,” Hallman says.

Despite her struggles with self-consciousness, Hallman placed fifth in the state competing with her speech and debate team by her senior year. When making a college decision, Butler’s speech and debate program stood out to her, so she enrolled as a Journalism major and continued her passion for communications.

At Butler, Hallman seized every opportunity she could to hone her craft. She won IFA Radio Broadcasting State Champion with the Butler Speech and Debate Team in 2023. She became Multimedia Editor of The Butler Collegian student newspaper and tutored her peers in the Speaker’s Lab. She added Strategic Communication as her second major where she learned how to craft press releases, a skill she uses in her internship. She met representatives from Fort Wayne’s WOWO radio station at a career fair and got a job broadcasting and producing shows during college breaks.

She also worked as a news Digital Producer at WANE 15 back home, fully embracing her love for news.

But something was still missing.

After attending two Indy Fuel games, Hallman was smitten by the idea of sports broadcasting. She took a leap of faith and emailed her resumé to Indy Fuel Director of Brand Partnerships, Halston Mavrick. He hired her, and Hallman said her job experience and the background she developed in CCOM helped her stand out.

Hallman credits her Indy Fuel team and her CCOM classes in helping her identify her passions and her dream job. She’s especially grateful for the support system she’s received from professors in CCOM and her core classes, emphasizing that Butler feels “like a big family” to her.

One example of this support was a CCOM scholarship from the Roger Lindberg Fund, which enabled her to travel to Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters Convention. CCOM’s Marketing and Recruitment Manager, Ross Hollebon, had connections that allowed Hallman to shadow TV and radio broadcasters at an NHL game. There, she met Kevin Gorg, Reporter and Hockey Analyst for the Minnesota Wild team.

“It was the most incredible experience of my life… I was so starstruck,” Hallman says. “After watching him for a couple periods of the hockey game, I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I want to do sideline reporting.’”

Hallman looks forward to continuing her path to becoming a sideline broadcast reporter post graduation and is thankful for all the people cheering her on.

“I never want to shut up about hockey—I want to wake up and go to an NHL rink every morning,” Hallman says. “That’s my dream. And I’m not the kind of person who will let a dream go.”