X-Nico

28 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.

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.

Alex Alben

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

Alpines

Their song "Empire" which was released as a video in May 2012 was used by Sky Atlantic for the trailer of the new series of Boardwalk Empire season 3 Autumn 2012 and by ESPN for US Barclays Center Classic in November 2012.

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.

AWA International Television Championship

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

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association

It was the first NCAA Division II conference to have its tournament televised as part of Championship Week on ESPN.

College Hoops 2K6

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

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.

ESPN College Hoops 2K5

The game features an ESPN "broadcast", where the ESPN commentators and logos are seen throughout the season, with an authentic ESPN broadcast during the game.

Gangelhoff Center

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

GWF Light Heavyweight Championship

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

GWF North American Heavyweight Championship

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

Herschel Walker trade

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

Human Dog Sled Competition

In past years, ESPN has given brief coverage to the final matchups of the event.

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.

Jerry Crasnick

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

Mayo Civic Center

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

Mendoza Line

"Then they were giving George Brett a hard time because he had a slow start that year, so they told him, 'Hey, man, you're going to sink down below the Mendoza Line if you're not careful.' And then Brett mentioned it to Chris Berman from ESPN, and eventually it spread and became a part of the game."

Pumpkin roll

Footage from the 2004 Pumpkin Roll shot by former student Ryan Luby appeared on ESPN as number eight on the “Not Top 10 Plays of the Week”.

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.

Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing

After the race, Fisher told ESPN's Jamie Little she was unsure if the team would be able to make it to Kentucky and Chicago because of the crash.

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.

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.


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.

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.

Armed Forces Foundation

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

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.

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.

Dave Strader

Following the death of longtime ESPN broadcaster Tom Mees in 1996, Strader was hired by the cable network to take the vacant play-by-play spot on National Hockey Night broadcasts.

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 Deportes

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

ESPN Deportes.com

Several journalists from ESPN Deportes and ESPN Latin America also appear on ESPN Deportes.com, including Raúl Allegre, John Sutcliffe, Ciro Procuna, Francisco Alemán, Tito Puccetti, Enrique Sacco and Martín Urruty.

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.

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.

Gianluca Pagliuca

Because of his colourful name, former SportsCenter anchor and current ESPN host Keith Olbermann uses his name as a creative way of airing someone cursing on camera in the midst of an argument with an official.

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.

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.

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.

John Dykes

Highlights of his time with ESPN STAR Sports include his anchoring the broadcast of cricket's 1999 World Cup in England, trips to Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows to work alongside Vijay Amritraj on Grand Slam tennis, and his work in Augusta for Tiger Woods' triumph at the 2001 Masters.

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.

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.

Mock draft

Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay of ESPN and Mike Mayock of the NFL Network are considered television experts on the NFL Draft.

Nudity in sport

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

Rob Paternostro

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

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).

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 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.

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 Basketball Jones

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

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.

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.