X-Nico

20 unusual facts about ESPN


1982–83 NBA season

The USA Network extended their cable deal with the NBA for another two years, and ESPN shared broadcast rights with them.

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.

Chute Boxe Academy

He was quoted in an ESPN article as stating that friendships formed with his former rivals helped to save his career upon his departure from Chute Boxe.

College Hoops 2K6

It also marked the first time since the original NCAA College Basketball 2K3 that the series was without an ESPN license.

Game-winning RBI

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

GWF Tag Team Championship

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

GWF Television Championship

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

Isidore Newman School

In May 2010, ESPN.com ranked Newman at the top of a survey of which high schools produce the best NFL players—even though the school has produced only three NFL players—because of the success of the Manning brothers.

Jeremy Hazell

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

Joe Dean

He coined the phrase "String Music" and is also known for other phrases such as, "Stufferino" and "Lexington, K-Y." During his run, he worked with NBC, TBS, ESPN, TVS and Jefferson Pilot.

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.

Refugio Independent School District

In 2011, ESPN's Outside the Lines program highlighted Jason Herring and the Refugio High School football team's preparation for the state playoffs, where they routinely could not avoid running up the score.

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".

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.

Shootaround

So infused is the term into basketball's lexicon, in fact, that ESPN's NBA re-cap show is called NBA Shootaround.

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

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.

Vaughan Mills

An ESPN X Games Skatepark was also planned as the main entertainment venue on the site.

Vice Verses

The band premiered 11 of the 12 tracks on September 17, 2011 through ESPN Music commencing with the match between Oklahoma and Florida St.


Andre Aldridge

During his three years at ESPN, Aldridge reported and anchored for various shows on the network, including NBA Tonight, NBA Matchup, and Friday Night Fights.

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.

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.

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.

Brad Childress

ESPN reported that Childress did not consider consulting with team owner Zygi Wilf on this decision.

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.

Daniel Brailovsky

He was then a correspondent for SportsCenter and Fútbol Picante, as well as the radio/TV show ESPN Radio Formula.

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.

David Padgett

As a high school senior, he was the top-rated center and considered the fourth-rated prospect overall by Inside Hoops, the seventh overall by Rivals Hoops, and fifteenth overall by ESPN.

Don Hasselbeck

Hasselbeck's second son Tim Hasselbeck was an NFL backup quarterback who currently works for ESPN as a Fantasy Football analyst and is married to Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Doris Burke

In 2003, Burke was named to ESPN's top men's basketball team working with Dick Vitale on the men's games and working the sidelines for ESPN and ABC for their coverage of the NBA.

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 Deportes

According to Nielsen, 5.5 million Hispanic households are subscribed to a plan that includes ESPN Deportes.

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.

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.

Glentoran F.C.

Burrows won the ESPN goal of the season and Sky Sports goal of the season, achieved almost 5 million views on YouTube and went up against world famous player Lionel Messi for the FIFA goal of the season award.

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.

Herman Ngoudjo

He defeated Randall Bailey in a split decision June 8 on ESPN to set up a fight for the IBF title.

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.

James Hasty

He also has served as a college football analyst for ESPN.

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.

Jeff Allison

ESPN's Peter Gammons made mentions of the similarities between the two players during his commentary at the 2008 MLB All Star Game.

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.

Lamont Pearson

After four wins he was held to a draw in 1999 when he fought Philadelphia lightweight Anthony Washington (also 4-0 and an experienced amateur) in a six-round bout on an ESPN2 Friday Night Fights but received glowing remarks from ESPN boxing analyst Teddy Atlas, who scored the fight for Pearson 57-56.

Nick Burdi

Burdi participated in the Area Code Games in the summer of 2010, attracting the attention of scouts, including Keith Law of ESPN.com.

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.

Nudity in sport

The Body Issue, ESPN magazines annual issue featuring nude photographs of athletes

Ocoee High School

The Marching Band has performed in the Cotton Bowl Music Festival, the Florida Citrus Parade, the Ikea Thanksgiving Parade, multiple Under Armour Football All-American Games that were broadcast on Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), multiple Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades at Universal Studios Florida, and the New York City Veteran's Day Parade.

Omri Lowther

In August 2006, on ESPN's Friday Night Fights he would go onto lose a ten round decision to title contender Henry Lundy.

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.

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.

Skills competitions

The Home Run Derby was first held in 1985 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was won by Cal Ripken, Jr. Today, the Derby usually sells out the all-star stadium and millions watch the event live on ESPN.

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 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.

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.

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 Doug Gottlieb Show

Since joining ESPN Radio in September 2003, Gottlieb had co-hosted GameNight along with personalities such as Chuck Wilson, Jeff Rickard, John Seibel and Freddie Coleman.

The ESPN Sports Poll

The ESPN (Chilton) Sports Poll was created by the Chilton Company in 1993 and launched on January 4, 1994.

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.