X-Nico

18 unusual facts about ESPN


2007 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team

On January 15, 2007 it was reported on ESPN.com that Tim Brewster was the choice of University of Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi to replace Glen Mason as the Gophers head coach.

AnnMaria De Mars

She is the mother of Ronda Rousey, an Olympic bronze medalist judoka and mixed martial arts Bantamweight world champion; and of María Burns Ortiz, a sports journalist who serves as the social media columnist for ESPN.com and as a contributor to Fox News Latino.

Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

In the ESPN documentary 9.79*, eventual silver medallist Christie states, and footage of the race shows, that Lewis "ran out of his lane... two or three times" during the race, which should have resulted in Lewis' automatic disqualification.

AWA International Television Championship

It was filled with a several months long tournament and was defended on their television broadcast on ESPN.

Bill Konigsberg

In May 2001, while working for ESPN.com, he came out on the front page of the website in an article entitled "Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays".

Game-winning RBI

ESPN would continue to occasionally show "GW RBI" in their on-screen statistics well into the 1990s.

GWF Light Heavyweight Championship

The title was defended on the promotion's show that aired nationally on ESPN.

Jeremy Hazell

Hazell was ranked as the 120th best draft prospect heading into the 2011 NBA Draft by Chad Ford of ESPN.com.

Jerry Crasnick

Jerry Crasnick (Born May 24, 1958) is a sports writer, currently covering baseball for the sports website ESPN.com.

John Hollinger

He left Sports Illustrated to write for ESPN.com in the summer of 2005, and his weekly columns are available through their "insider" subscription service.

Mayo Civic Center

The American Wrestling Association held a weekly television broadcast for both syndication, and cable on ESPN, from 1989-1990.

Sarah Burke

She won ESPN's 2001 Award for female skier of the year and was voted 2007's Best Female Action Sports Athlete at the ESPY awards.

Seven Days in Sunny June

The original jersey was used by the Peruvian team during the 70s and was awarded by ESPN as the "Best World Cup jersey of all time".

Swin Cash

In the off-season, Cash has appeared as a studio analyst on ESPN's NBA Fastbreak (according to ESPN.com) and during the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, she alternated with Teresa Edwards in presenting in-game commentary for NBC's presentation of the women's basketball tournament from the network's New York broadcast studios.

Terry Holland

Holland has also been a highly-requested television analyst, working primarily for ESPN and the ACC Television Network from 1990 to 1996, handling approximately 20 games per year.

The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy

The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy is the second book by ESPN columnist Bill Simmons.

Simmons has written under the name “The Sports Guy” for 12 years, 9 of them with ESPN, and currently receives 1.4 million page views per month.

Wins Above Replacement

ESPN publishes the Baseball Reference version of WAR on its statistics pages for position players and pitchers.


2008 College Football All-America Team

The 2008 College Football All-America Team is composed of the following All-American first teams: American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Associated Press (AP), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Walter Camp Football Foundation, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Pro Football Weekly, ESPN, CBS Sports, College Football News, Rivals.com, and Scout.com.

2009 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

Along with ESPN, the IMS Radio Network, working with Performance Racing Network, provided radio coverage on terrestrial radio, World Harvest Radio International also provided Shortwave feed of the IMS coverage, and with Sirius XM Radio holding the satellite radio rights.

2010–13 NCAA conference realignment

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick stated in an interview with Pat Forde, then of ESPN.com, that at most schools, realignment was being driven primarily by university administrators who saw an opportunity to improve the academic image of their schools—not by athletic directors.

Adirondack Frostbite

In 2004, ESPN SportsCenter anchor Steve Levy and NHL analyst Barry Melrose became the team's owners and the team changed its name to the Frostbite.

Alex Alben

At Starwave, Alben worked on pioneering CD-ROM products and helped launch popular web sites such as ABCNews.com and ESPN.com.

Anne Marie Anderson

Following graduation from Hofstra, Anderson relocated to Bristol, CT and worked as a production assistant, assignment editor and associate producer on ESPN staples such as SportsCenter, NFL Gameday and Outside the Lines.

Anthony Sperduti

Trained as an art director, he has worked as creative director at advertising agencies Wieden & Kennedy (Portland, New York, and London offices), TBWA\Chiat\Day, Modernista and with brands like Nike, The Gap, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, ESPN, MTV, Volvo, and Heineken.

Ari Wolfe

Wolfe's impressive resume lead ESPN to hire him as the play-by-play man for the Madden Challenge in 2007, shown on Superbowl Sunday on ESPN2.

Armed Forces Foundation

The program has received recognition from Congressional leaders, ESPN, ESPN2, Outdoor Channel, The Sportsman Channel, Pentagon Channel, and Fox News.

Boxing After Dark

Replacing them were Fran Charles, former ESPN and Fox Sports Net analyst Max Kellerman who receives "something in the neighborhood of $10,000 for each Boxing After Dark telecast" (Thomas Hauser) and former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.

Carolyn Peck

Peck was not out of basketball for long, however: ESPN hired her as a basketball analyst within months.

Chris Duncan

Since October 2, 2011, Duncan has been a host for "Stully and Duncan," a nightly radio program on the St. Louis ESPN Radio Affiliate, WXOS.

Danny Perez Ramírez

He holds wins over contender Julio César García, the 2006 winner of ESPN's The Contender Grady Brewer, and former IBA Middleweight Champion Jose Luis Zertuche.

Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place

“We Owe This to Ourselves,” another track from the album, was the main song used for the 2010 ESPN’s X-Games, Shift 2: Unleashed, and as part of Tony Hawk: Shred soundtrack.

Doris Burke

Doris Burke (born Doris Sable on January 4, 1965) is a sideline reporter and color analyst for ESPN college basketball, as well as NBA on ESPN and NBA on ABC games.

Doug Ammons

Doug Ammons has turned away sponsorship offers from many kayaking companies and also declined the opportunity to have a show with ESPN on a race he founded, a big water race on the North Fork Payette River.

Doug Gottlieb

Gottlieb was also a frequent guest on other ESPN television shows, including SportsCenter and also on College Basketball Gameday Final.

ESPN College Football Saturday Primetime

Some notable voices of ESPN College Football Primetime over the years have been Ron Franklin, Mike Gottfried and Adrian Karsten, but all have gone on to different assignments, except for Karsten, who died in 2005.

ESPN Major League Soccer

On August 4, 2006, ESPN reached a comprehensive multimedia agreement with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) for the rights to Major League Soccer through 2014.

Fisher Field

the 2006 edition was televised nationally on ESPN2 as part of the High School Showcase (it was the last Thanksgiving high school football game ESPN has aired to date).

Fred Christenson

Christenson left ESPN after nearly 20 years of service in 2006 and went to work for Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder’s newly acquired company Six Flags, Inc. (SIX) as Regional Vice President of Parks Strategy and Management.

GAC Logistics

GAC is the key sponsor behind English football club Crystal Palace, ESPN Star Sports regional broadcast sponsor for FA Cup, European Tour star golfers Richard Stern and Graeme Storm, motor racing professional Alex Brundle, professional rugby league club Bradford Bulls, leading London Beckenham Swimming club and official logistics sponsor for Manchester United Soccer Schools.

Gary Hoey

As writer, producer, and guitar player, Hoey's clients have included Disney, ESPN, and No Fear, and he has performed the National Anthem for the New England Patriots, San Diego Padres, and the Boston Red Sox.

Gianluca Pagliuca

In the 1997 book The Big Show: Inside ESPN's SportsCenter, Olbermann remarked, "We'll spare you which expletive."

Henry Lundy

Lundy returned to the ring five weeks later, again on ESPN, with a unanimous decision win over Omri Lowther in Montreal, Quebec – a fight Lundy agreed to take on just three days’ notice.

Holly Rowe

Other broadcasts that Rowe has been a part of with her time at ESPN include play-by-play for Women's World Cup matches, coverage of the Running of the Bulls, coverage of swimming, and broadcasts of track & field events.

Javier Aguirre

Aguirre's decision-making during the qualifying stages and especially during the World Cup grew increasingly controversial, with the ESPN broadcaster José Ramón Fernández calling him the worst coach in the World Cup after France's Raymond Domenech.

Jemele Hill

Hill also makes regular appearances on television, including SportsCenter and several ESPN programs, including ESPN First Take, Outside the Lines and The Sports Reporters.

Kristi Lee

Lee was also featured on ESPN and ESPN2 as a side line reporter, covering events like lacrosse, auto racing, and the first three X Games on ESPN2.

Larry Nuber

During a 1989 "Thunder" broadcast, Nuber and fellow announcer/former racer Steve Chassey got involved in a heated dispute over Rich Vogler which eventually caused both men to be let go by ESPN.

Norris Division

As part of his shtick, ESPN's Chris Berman often refers to the National Football League's NFC North division (previously the NFC Central division) as the Norris Division or "NFC Norris" since the two divisions included teams from three of the same cities: Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis–St. Paul.

Perry Swenson

Perry is currently in a 12-episode series follows former PGA Tour professional and current ESPN commentator Charlie Rymer, Hootie & the Blowfish band member Mark Bryan, musician Josh Kelley and Duramed Futures Tour player Perry Swenson as they enjoy an extended Myrtle Beach golf vacation.

Pete Rose, Jr.

As a teenager, on September 11, 1985, he made an emotional on-field appearance live on ESPN to celebrate with his father after Rose Sr. broke Ty Cobb's record for most career hits.

Proposed Major League Baseball franchises in Portland, Oregon

ESPN.com reported that the Portland metropolitan area was a bigger location then the ones that house the Cincinnati Reds, the Kansas City Royals and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Rob Paternostro

Whilst recovering from injury in 1999, Paternostro worked at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut putting together highlight packages for SportsCenter and NBA Tonight.

Shane Theriot

He has performed with many influential musicians, authored guitar instruction books and DVDs, and composed and produced music for MTV and ESPN, among others.

Shaun Weiss

Most recently, he is seen in a commercial for Captain Morgan's ("Maxi-Mixers are going fast! How about a demo, Phil?"), Castrol, and ESPN Mobile MVP as Mike 'Big Grunz' Grunski.

Solomon Wilcots

During this time he spent spent three seasons (1998–2000) as a sideline reporter for ESPN's Sunday Night football, for which he received an Emmy Award in 2000 for sideline reporting.

SportsChannel

The network obtained the National Hockey League rights from ESPN in 1988 by offering the NHL almost triple the amount of money that ESPN was offering (a move not unlike the 2005 NHL rights grab by Comcast/OLN over ESPN).

Steve Billirakis

While not a formal breach of the rules, ESPN commentator Norman Chad opined that such plays "ain't kosher" according to poker etiquette.

Steve Bunin

Prior to ESPN, Bunin served as sports anchor/director at five different local news stations: WOTV-TV in Battle Creek, Michigan, from 2002-2003, WLAJ-TV in Lansing, Michigan, from 2000-2001, KNAZ-TV in Flagstaff, Arizona, from 1998-2000, WICZ-TV in Binghamton, New York, in 1997 and WTVH-TV in Syracuse, New York, in 1995-1996, where he worked alongside future CNN anchor Christopher Lawrence and future ABC anchor David Muir.

Taurian Fontenette

Video clips of the feat have been shown on ESPN's SportsCenter and also have been widely distributed over the internet.

Texas Fight

Another version used at the annual Texas-OU game is "Give 'em hell, give 'em hell! OU sucks!" In a commercial for ESPN's College GameDay, Kirk Herbstreit improvised "Yeah, we're Texas, just north of Mexico. Home of the armadillo, black gold and El Arroyo..." before Longhorns coach Mack Brown says, "we don't freestyle 'Texas Fight', Big Boy."

The Wildbirds

The song "421 (Everybody Loves You)" was featured in ESPN's commercials leading up to the event, and "Hard on Me" was played during a feature on Levi LaVallee.

This Is Home

The song was also featured on ESPN SportsCenters "Titletown" segment which ran throughout July 2008.

Tommy Smyth

In 2007 he joined ESPN's MLS broadcast team and has also done a few World Cups for ESPN, including 2006, where he partnered with Adrian Healey.