John Saunders

John Saunders is a Canadian–American sports journalist from Toronto, Ontario. He is currently working for ESPN and ABC.

Biography

Early life and career

According to his ABC biography, "Saunders, an all-star defenseman in the Montreal junior leagues, received a scholarship and played hockey at Western Michigan University from 1974-76." The university's official hockey media guide lists Saunders as having played two games for the Broncos in that time frame, and also lists his hometown as Ajax, Ontario. [cite web|url=https://www.nmnathletics.com/pdf1/92563.pdf?ATCLID=1289594&SPSID=24470&SPID=1928&DB_OEM_ID=4600 |title=Hockey History: Player Register |work=2007-08 Western Michigan Hockey Media Guide |publisher=Western Michigan University Athletics |format=PDF |pages=p. 80 |accessdate=2007-12-29] He was the news director for CKNS Radio (Espanola, Ontario, 1978), and sports anchor at CKNY-TV (Ontario, 1978–1979) and at ATV News (New Brunswick, 1979–1980). He also served as the main sports anchor for City-TV (Toronto, 1980–1982). He then moved to the United States to work as a sports anchor at WMAR-TV (Baltimore, 1982–1986). [http://www.abcmedianet.com/shows05/sports/commentators/saunders.shtml]

Career at ESPN and ABC Sports

Saunders came to ESPN in 1986, is currently the host of ESPN's "The Sports Reporters". He previously co-hosted NFL Primetime from 1987 to 1989. He was also the studio host for the network's NHL broadcasts from 1992-93 until 2004, and is currently the studio host of ABC's coverage of college football. He has also hosted ABC's coverage of baseball under the Baseball Night in America banner and was involved in ESPNs coverage earlier in his career.

NBA

From 2002 to 2004, and occasionally during the 2007 season, Saunders has done play-by-play for ESPN's coverage of the NBA mostly on Sunday Nights. He and was the studio host of ESPN's "NBA Shootaround" from 2004 to 2006.Saunders also serves as a back-up play-by-play man for "The NBA on ABC". He has called most of the Team U.S.A. games on ESPN for the 2007 FIBA Americas Qualifying Tournament.

portscenter

In 2008, he began hosting the 7pm ET Sunday "SportsCenter" during the NFL season with Chris Berman and analyst Tom Jackson. [http://www.espnmediazone.com/press_releases/2008_09_sep/20080902_CoAnchorsChrisBermanandJohnSaundersNFLAnalyst.htm]

Toronto Raptors

He was the play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Raptors from 1995 to 2001, eventually being replaced by Chuck Swirsky.

Controversies

On November 19, 2004 following a massive altercation between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers at the end of an NBA game, Saunders referred to the fans in Detroit as "punks" and "sissies".fact|date=September 2008 He apologized that same night, clarifying that he did not mean that in relation to all people from Detroit.fact|date=September 2008

Saunders evoked controversy again on September 24, 2005 during ABC's telecast of the Notre Dame–Washington game, when he played the "race card" in an interview with Tyrone Willingham, the former Notre Dame coach who was now coaching Washington.fact|date=September 2008 Saunders had bitterly criticized ND's firing of Willingham nine months earlier, despite the fact that the Irish were 11–14 in Willingham's last 24 months on the job, had suffered three consecutive 31 point losses to arch-rival Southern Cal, [http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/independents/notre_dame/yearly_results.php?year=2000] and had their worst two recruiting classes in modern history.fact|date=September 2008 During the interview, Saunders went further and openly suggested that ND's firing of Willingham was racially motivated.fact|date=September 2008 Willingham refused to challenge Saunders' assertions, despite the fact that Notre Dame continued to pay Willingham millions of dollars under his contract. Also contributing to the controversy was the fact that newly appointed head coach Charlie Weis received a contract extension from the institution during his first season coaching for them in 2005, and then two years later in the 2007 season had the worst record for a Notre Dame program in recent history. [http://bluegraysky.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html#112769585315844653] As of the 2008 season, Saunders continued to bash Notre Dame's football program and to steadfastly defend Willingham,fact|date=September 2008 even though Washington has floundered under Willingham's tenure (11–25 overall and 6–20 in the Pacific-10 Conference in his first three seasons). [http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/pac10/washington/yearly_results.php?year=2005]

Personal life

Saunders currently resides in Waterbury, Connecticut with his wife and children.

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040605173749/http://espn.go.com/abcsports/columns/saunders_john/bio.html ABC Sports - John Saunders]

Notes and references