Sportscasters Who Made TV Better: Where Are They Now?

In the early 1990’s, Summer Sanders was an Olympic medal winning swimmer. In 1992, Sanders began her television career with CBS and NBC as a commentator and analyst for the NCAA Swimming championships as well Olympic swimming events. Throughout the 90’s and into the early 2000’s, Sanders remained an active contributor to Olympic coverage.

Sanders has stayed relevant in the sports world, remaining dedicated to the Olympics, co-hosting NBA Inside Stuff, sideline reporting WNBA games, working as a feature correspondent for NBA on NBC, and covering tennis at the US Open. 90’s kids will certainly recognize Sanders from her hosting gigs with Nickelodeon and MTV. In recent years, Sanders has appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, and Rachel vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. She’s also hosted Elite Athlete Workouts on Yahoo!Sports. She currently works as a commentator on the Pac-12 Network and host of HLN’s Keywords.

After graduating from the University of Miami in 1994, Jill Arrington spent 5 years as a producer for a show called Main Floor and 1 year as a producer for Paramount’s Real TV. She then began her sportscasting career, starting as a sideline reporter with Fox Sports, focusing on women’s tennis and features for Fox NFL Sunday. Arrington also co-hosted Fox Sports’ NFL Under the Helmet for one season and was involved in the Arena Football League, both as a Pregame Show host and as a sideline reporter for TNN.

Following a four-year-stint with CBS as a sideline reporter for the US Open Tennis Tournament and Southeastern Conference College Football, and a feature reporter for The NFL Today show, Arrington moved to ESPN and spent a year as lead prime-time college football sideline reporter and feature reporter for ESPN’s College Gameday. She then took some time off to raise her daughter before returning to Fox Sports in 2010, hosting a number of Fox’s NFL, college football, and Nascar shows. Today, Jill is a sports anchor for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

Before she was a sideline reported for NBC, Heather Cox was a volleyball player at the University of the Pacific, where she majored in communications and graduated in 1992. As a member of the United States National Volleyball Team, Cox competed at the 1990 United States Olympic Festival. She was also a team captain of the Sacremento Stars. Towards the end of her volleyball career, Cox began broadcasting for Fox Sports Net in 1993, covering college football, NBA, and volleyball.

For over 20 years, Heather Cox worked as a reported for ABC Sports and ESPN, covering NBA, WNBA, college football, college basketball, and professional volleyball. From 1999-2000 Cox reported for the Running with the Pac magazine show, and in 2000, also ran her own weekly national volleyball column. She has also worked for CBS sports, covering college basketball, motocross and auto racing. Today, you’ll most likely to see Heather Cox on NBC and NFL Network as a sideline reporter for Thursday Night Football as well as for postseason games.

Suzy Kolber started her career with CBS sports in New York City as a videotape coordinator. From 1985-1990, Kolber was a producer on WTVJ-TV and WPLG-TV in Miami, winning a local Sports Emmy in 1988. She also freelanced and worked on two magazine shows, gaining experience producing, reporting, and directing.

Kolber joined ESPN in 1993 after 2 years anchoring for WPEC-TV in Florida. She covered NFL, X Games, and professional tennis. In 1996, Kolber left ESPN for Fox Sports, where she covered NFL, NHL, and horse racing, but returned to ESPN after 3 years. In 2006, Kolber joined ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew in their first year, contributing to the program’s success. Since returning to ESPN, Kolber has covered horse racing, The NFL Draft, and Nascar. She is now a host of Monday Night Countdown.

Hannah Storm, born Hannah Lynn Storen, began with radio, serving as a disk jockey for a hard rock radio station in Texas in the early 1980’s. She studied at Notre Dame and there she worked for WNDU-TV, an NBC affiliate at the time. After college, she worked for a number of local radio and TV stations, delivering sports news and traffic, and eventually serving as a weekend sports anchor on WCNC TV 36 in the late 1980’s. In 1989, Storm became the first female host on CNN Sports Tonight.

Storm moved on from CNN to NBC in 1992, where she anchored coverage in just about every major sport, as well as the Olympic Games. From 1994-2000, Storm hosted NBC Sports’ MLB games and became the first woman in American television history to host a network’s sport package without a co-host. Storm moved on to ESPN/ABC in 2008. From 2002-2007, she co-hosted The Early Show and in 2010 hosted NBA Countdown for a year. Storm has been a SportsCenter anchor since 2008.

Pam Oliver graduated from Florida A&M University where she ran track and majored in broadcast journalism. In 1985, she began her broadcasting career as a news reporter with WALB in Albany, Georgia. For the next six years she moved from Georgia to Alabama to Buffalo until she eventually landed her first job as a sports reporter with WTVT in Tampa in 1991. After a couple years as a sports anchor in KHOU-TV in Houston, Oliver landed a job with ESPN in 1993.

In 1995, Pam Oliver began sideline reporting with Fox Sports as part of the number-one broadcasting team, and in 2005 landed another job as a sideline reporter with TNT for their NBA playoffs coverage. 2014 was Oliver’s last NFL season as a sideline reporter. She was moved to Fox’s number-two NFL broadcasting team in 2015 where she remains today. Pam Oliver has become known for giving us a deeper look into the human aspect of sports and lives of professional athletes.

Bonnie Bernstein’s career began as a news and sports director for WXJN-FM radio in Delaware. She then moved to ABC affiliate WMDT-TV in Maryland as weekend news anchor and eventually became Reno, Nevada’s first-ever female weekday sports anchor at NBC affiliate KRNV-TV. In 1995, Bernstein moved to ESPN, where she covered the Chicago Bulls’ championship streak from 1996-1998, She also appeared on Sunday NFL Countdown, College Gameday, and SportsCenter. In 1998, Berstein moved to CBS where she did sideline reporting for men’s college basketball and features for The NFL Today.

By 2001, Bernstein was covering Sunday NFL games on TV, and Monday night games on Westwood One Radio. Bernstein stayed at CBS until 2006, covering various sports and hosting in-studio shows. In 2006, she returned to ESPN as a field reporter but health issues forced Bernstein to step down from field reporting and take on more in-studio roles. Today, Bernstein still appears as a guest commentator on news and sports outlets. She is most notably VP of Content and Brand Development for Campus Insiders and hosts their studio show.

Prior to sportscasting, Lisa Salters played basketball at at Penn State University, where she actually holds the unusual record of being the shortest player in school history. She was listed at a mere 5’2″. Her journalism career began at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, where she stayed from 1988-1995. Throughout her career, she has covered several intriguing stories including the O.J. Simpson case, and sports-related stories in the Middle East leading up to the Iraq War. In 2000, she became a general assignment reporter for ESPN, where she made a name for herself.

Today, Salters works as a sideline reporter for ESPN’s Monday Night Football as well as ESPN’s coverage of the NBA on ABC. You have probably also seen her on ESPN’s newsmagazine show, E:60, where she joined as a featured correspondent in 2007 and was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award in 2008. With her hard-hitting reporting style, Salters has been a regular on Outside the Lines. She has also reported for ESPN’s coverage of the FIFA world Cup, as well as the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Greg Gumbel got his start in broadcasting as a sports announcer for WMAQ-TV. Gumbel stayed there for seven years, eventually making his way through and number of minor roles with MSG, ESPN, and New York’s WFAN radio. In 1988, Gumbel signed with CBS and started as a part-time NFL and college basketball announcer. His CBS career also consisted of work co-hosting The NFL Today, and anchoring MLB, college football, Winter Olympic Games, and Nascar coverage. Gumbel also did play-by-play for the NBA and both professional and college baseball.

Gumbel moved to NBC in 1994, where he hosted NBC’s coverage of various MLB All-Star and post-season games. He also did play-by-play for the NBA on NBC and hosted coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 1995 World Championships of Figure Skating, and hosted the NFL on NBC. In 1998, Gumbel returned to CBS, where he continues to host network coverage of college basketball. In 1998, Gumbel spent 5 years announcing for the NFL on CBS, hosted The NFL Today for a year, and eventually returned to calling play-by-play.

Everyone enjoys watching the news with Melissa Mariau. She’s beautiful, smart, and knows how to capture the audience’s attention and talk about the topics that really matter.

Everyone enjoys watching the news with Melissa Mariau. She’s beautiful, smart, and knows how to capture the audience’s attention and talk about the topics that really matter. Her career has continued to grow in recent years, but Meriau is still young and has more time to establish her career. With her talents and skills, she is bound to go far in television.

Brent Musburger started his career in the 1960’s as a sportswriter for The Chicago American newspaper. In 1968, Musburger joined CBS, where he served as a radio and TV sports anchor. In 1973, he started doing NFL play-by-play for CBS sports, and by 1975 was hosting The NFL Today. Musburger then branched out, covering college football and basketball, NBA, horse racing, tennis, golf, MLB and even The World’s Strongest Man contests. Musburger made a great impact at CBS, and was even credited with coining the phrase “march madness.”

In 1990, Musburger was fired from CBS and moved on to work with ABC. At ABC, Musburger’s was primarily responsible for college football and basketball, but in 2006, after an ABC-ESPN merger, Musburger started covering all kinds of sporting events. From 2006-2013, Musburger called play-by-play for Saturday Night Football, and from 2014-2017 served as lead play-by-play for SEC Network. In 2017, Musburger stepped down from play-by-play broadcasting and now broadcasts his show, My Guys in the Desert for the Vegas Stats & Information Network.

Craig Kilborn began his sportscasting career as the play-by-play radio commentator for the Savannah Spirits and an anchor for KCBA, a Fox affiliate in California. After a few minor broadcasting positions, Kilborn became a SportsCenter anchor from 1993-1996. In 1996, Comedy Central chose Kilborn to be the first-ever host of The Daily Show, where he found his knack for comedy. He stayed for three years before landing another hosting job on The Late Late Show, where he’s been recognized for adjusting the show to appeal to a younger audience.

Kilborn stayed on The Late Late Show for five years, leaving in August 2004. From 2003-2015, Kilborn has appeared in various popular films including Old School, The Benchwarmers, and The Bronze. In 2004, he returned to co-host a 25th Anniversary broadcast of SportsCenter and in 2010, had a brief go at his own show, The Kilborn File. Unfortunately, after a six-week trial run, the show was not renewed. Most recently, Kilborn has appeared on BoJack Horseman, Workaholics, and a TV commercial for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.

Chris Berman, AKA “Boomer”, began his sportscasting career with WVIT-TV in Hartford, CT as a weekend sports anchor. Joining the ESPN crew only a month after its launch in 1979, Berman is a member of the original ESPN team. Boomer quickly became the face (and voice) of the network’s Sunday NFL Countdown, hosting the program from 1985-2016 and easily earning our admiration with his highly creative and animated catchphrases. Its hard to imagine seeing a kickoff return for a touchdown without his, “He…could…go….all….the…way!”

Today, Chris Berman is one of ESPN’s longest tenured employees. After having hosted Sunday NFL countdown for 31 years and Monday Night Football for 10 years, the 62-year-old Berman is getting used to a few more hours on the golf course and a few less hours in the broadcasting studio. Nonetheless, he still continues to conduct the occasional interview and maintains an active role within ESPN and the NFL. No matter what, it’s safe to say that Boomer will always be a beloved household name.

Dick Vitale, AKA “Dicky V”, began his basketball coaching career in 1958, coaching kids in Garfield, New Jersey. He quickly moved through the ranks, coaching high school for a few years and was eventually given the opportunity to work at Rutgers University as an assistant coach in 1971, where he stayed for 2 seasons. He then became head coach at the University of Detroit and in worked his way up to become athletic director in 1977. Vitale went on to coach the Detroit Pistons for a somewhat unsuccessful 1978-1979 season.

Dicky V. reluctantly abandoned his love for coaching and began his broadcasting career with ESPN on December 5, 1979. Although he wasn’t exactly interested in a career shift, Vitale went on to become one of the most recognizable names in basketball. By the 2004-2005 season, Vitale was calling about 40 games per year and to this day has called well over a thousand. In 2008, Vitale was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and in 2011 the University of Detroit named a basketball court in his honor.

Formerly known as Dan Pugh, Dan Patrick began his career as an on-air personality for the WVUD and WTUE radio stations in Dayton, Ohio from 1979-1983. He then became a sports reporter for CNN, covering the World Series, NBA finals, and Winter Olympics from 1983. In 1989, he returned to radio, hosting a segment for Wisconsin morning show Bob and Brian. Patrick has always remained busy, hosting sports updates for Ohio radio station, WLVQ in the early 90’s, and landing a job anchoring ESPN’s SportsCenter from 1989-2006.

Dan Patrick began hosting what he is most famous for, The Dan Patrick Show, in 1999. While the show started with ESPN radio, it has bounced around quite a bit since then. Today, you can catch The Dan Patrick Show on podcasts, the NBC sports website, and satellite radio. Patrick also had a brief stint hosting NBA Nation on ABC from 2006-2007. He has co-hosted The Olympics twice as well as Football Night in America on NBC. Patrick also has also appeared in movies, popular TV shows, even music videos.

Before ESPN, Chris Fowler worked for two years at KCNC-TV, Denver’s NBC affiliate as a production assistant, producer/writer, and sports reporter. Fowler was called up to ESPN in July 1986, hosting and reporting for Scholastic Sports America for two years and eventually sideline reporting college football games. In 1990, he joined the College Gameday crew, where he would stay until 2014. In 1997, Peyton Manning lost the Heisman trophy to Charles Woodson and Fowler took criticism for referring to Tennessee fans’ reaction as a “trailer park frenzy.”

After the 1997 Heisman trophy controversy, Fowler issued an apology to fans and continued to host the annual Heisman Trophy presentations. However, the crew of Gameday chose to avoid the Tennessee campus for several years after, for obvious reasons. Although his position on Gameday was filled by Rece Davies in February 2015, Fowler continued to call play-by-play for ABC’s Saturday Night Football as well as for college football playoff games. He has also covered college basketball, Summer and Winter X Games, horse racing, tennis, and the FIFA World Cup.

At the age of 28, Bob Costas was told by Don Ohlmeyer that he looked 14. Shaking off the criticism, Costas would go on to a very successful career in sports broadcasting. After graduating from Syracuse University, where he announced for the Syracuse Blazers minor league hockey team, Costas began a career with KMOX radio and within 2 years, landed a job announcing NFL and NBA games for CBS from the years 1976-1979. In the 1979-1980 NBA season, Bob Costas was WGN-TV’s voice of the Chicago Bulls.

Since his beginnings at Syracuse University, Bob Costas has gone on to a rather illustrious and diverse career in sports broadcasting. He boasts an impressive resume, announcing professional events in boxing, golf, baseball, nascar, basketball, football, hockey, and even thoroughbred racing. For 24 years, he was NBC’s Prime-Time Winter Olympics Host. Stepping down in 2017, Costas stated that it’s “better to leave before they drop hints.” In recent years he has also become well-known for speaking out against the dangers of football.

Bob Ley began as a sportscaster and program director at WSOU at Seton Hall University, and interned for WOR-AM in New York City. After graduation, Ley moved on to announce for the New York Cosmos soccer team. He joined ESPN in 1979, just three days after its launch. Ley has co-hosted SportsCenter for most of his career, but is well-known for hosting Outside the Lines, which first aired in 1990, and is famous, to this day, for tackling complex issues surrounding the sports world.

Today, Bob Ley is the longest-tenured ESPN employee. As a sports journalist, he has delivered countless memorable stories including the Boston Marathon bombings, ESPN’s first coverage of 9/11, Magic Johnson’s AIDS announcement, Pete Rose’s lifetime suspension, the 1989 San Fransisco earthquake, and the death of Muhammed Ali. He has won 11 Emmy awards and three CableACE Awards. He remains the main studio anchor for ESPN’s coverage of major professional soccer tournaments, and in 2013 was presented with the Men in Blazers Golden Jacket for lifetime services to American soccer.