X-Nico

22 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.

Alex Alben

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

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.

Derrick Walton

At the time, he was ranked 77th, 88th and 92nd in the class of 2013 according to Scout.com, Rivals.com and ESPN.com, respectively.

ESPN College Hoops

It is the sequel to the debut game of the series, NCAA College Basketball 2K3, and the first game in the series to feature the ESPN license.

Fiction Reform

Their song "Small Silhouette" was featured on ESPN's SportsCenter LA in October 2009 and was the first public exposure of the song.

Game-winning RBI

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

Gangelhoff Center

One of those times was March 2001 when Concordia hosted the Slam Dunk/Three Point competition that was televised nationally by ESPN.

Green Umbrella

Cricshop is run as the online shop of the website cricinfo.com - the world's largest cricketing portal run by ESPN.

GWF Light Heavyweight Championship

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

GWF Tag Team Championship

The title was featured 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.

Olu Famutimi

In Michigan, he played for the Flint Northwestern Wildcats where he climbed the national ranks as the 7th best player in the country according to ESPN.com.

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.

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".

Shootaround

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

STATS LLC

In 1987, STATS developed a reporter network for Major League Baseball and provided research for NBC's postseason baseball coverage, and by 1989 was doing the same for ESPN's broadcasts.

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.

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.


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.

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.

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.

Bill Couturié

He recently co-produced and directed the film Guru of Go, a documentary for the ESPN 30 for 30 series about Paul Westhead' s unorthodox fast break basketball offense at Loyola Marymount University called "The System" featuring Gregory "Bo" Kimble and the late Hank Gathers.

Bowl Championship Series on television and radio

For example, despite both the historic nature of the 2007 BCS championship game (Florida's win gave it simultaneous Division I football and basketball championships, which had never before been accomplished) and the compelling 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Fox would not allow ESPN Classic (a sister network to rights co-holder ESPN) to show the games as "instant classics."

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.

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.

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.

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.

ESPN Goal Line

The channel is active during three college sports seasons; during college football season as Goal Line, college basketball season as ESPN Buzzer Beater, and through the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship as ESPN Bases Loaded, providing live look-ins and analysis of games in progress.

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.

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.

Georgie Bingham

During her time at ESPN, she participated in broadcasts from Wimbledon, The Open, the US open golf and tennis, The ESPYs, and interviewed Pele, David Beckham, Tracy McGrady, Michael Phelps, Kobe Bryant among others.

Gianluca Pagliuca

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

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.

Herschel Walker trade

For this reason, ESPN.com lists it as the 8th most lopsided trade in sports history.

James Hasty

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

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.

LaPhonso Ellis

In 2009 Ellis began his first full season as a college basketball analyst for ESPN.

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.

Lexington Legends

The event received coverate on various television programs including NBC's The Tonight Show, ESPN's Pardon the Interruption and SportsCenter, and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Little League World Series on television

The Poynter Institute was hired by ESPN to write about their programming, from an outsider's perspective.

Mallory Holtman

In the weeks following the initial ESPN.com reports, Holtman and Wallace, often with Tucholsky, have appeared on Inside Edition, The Early Show, ESPN First Take, SportsCenter, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Matthew Barnaby

On December 5, 2011, ESPN terminated its contract with Barnaby after his arrest on suspicion of DWI earlier in the day.

Mayo Civic Center

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

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.

Norwalk Community College

Matthew Berry, current writer for ESPN.com and senior director of fantasy sports of ESPN.

Nudity in sport

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

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.

Playmakers

Although the ratings were very high for ESPN—Playmakers was the highest-rated show on the network other than its Sunday night NFL and Saturday college football games—ESPN eventually canceled the series under pressure from the National Football League, who thought professional football was being negatively portrayed.

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.

Spurs–Suns rivalry

In May 2008, ESPN.com columnist John Hollinger named the Spurs Hack-a-Shaq use as the "Best Tactic" of the first two rounds of the 2008 NBA Playoffs.

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.

The Basketball Jones

The show championed the “fan perspective” of sports reporting pioneered by ESPN’s Bill Simmons.

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.

Thurston Harris

In 2012, his version of the song "Over Somebody Else's Shoulder" was used for an ESPN commercial advertising the mobile app ESPN VIEW for the upcoming Bowl Championship Series.

Yankees Classics

In 2007, YES and Major League Baseball acquired rights to games that aired on ABC as part of MLB's then-TV deal with ESPN, including Bobby Murcer's five runs batted in during the game the night of Thurman Munson's funeral.