Sunday, December 24, 2000
Sports on TV-Radio
Ward first woman to do bowl game
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It all started with an article about Melissa Stark getting the job as the sideline reporter for Monday Night Football. It was mentioned in the article that no women are doing football play-by-play. That got Pam Ward started.
She does women's basketball play-by-play. She's covered football and figured football play-by-play was the next step.
“I was fired up to do it,” she said. “I've wanted to do football since I was a little kid.”
So she went to ESPN vice president John Walsh and put her name in the running.
ESPN gave her a shot. She did the Bowling Green-Toledo game during the regular season, then the Division II championship and she'll do he Motor City Bowl Wednesday.
University of Cincinnati fans who tune in to watch the Bearcats play Marshall (4 p.m., ESPN) will hear a bit of history. ESPN says Ward is the first woman to ever broadcast a college bowl game.
Ward got the gig because of her play-by-play background and her football background. The fact she's an ESPN employee didn't hurt.
She came to the network as an anchor for ESPNews in November 1996. ESPN2 began using her as a sideline reporter on football games that year. She had hosted the Baltimore Ravens pregame show when she worked for WBAL-Radio.
Doing football was a big step because women rarely do play-by-play for any men's sports.
“There's very, very few,” Ward said, “Michelle Tafoya has done some men's games. But there's only a handful.”
Play-by-play seems to be the last bastion of gender inequity in sports media. Women cover pro football, basketball and baseball for newspapers. The networks have women anchors.
“I think maybe with play-by-play with our voices out there, "People can say, "hey, that's a women,”' Ward said. “Maybe that has something to do with it.”
Ward is learning how different football is from basketball.
“Just the volume of things,” she said. “There are a lot more players. The preparation is probably 10-fold. You work with a spotter and a stat guy. Basketball is so much quicker. With football, there's a lot more dead time.”
Ward will work with analyst Don McPherson, the former Syracuse quarterback, in the Motor City Bowl game.
Ward would like to continue in her play-by-play role next football season.
“But we haven't talked about it yet,” she said. “The schedule's not even set, but, sure, I'd love to do it.”
BYE BOB: The last daily local show on WBOB (1160) appears to be history.
The show Doug Kidd and Greg Waddell did from 4-7 p.m. was not on this week and the station's Web Site does not list it in its schedule for next week.
It's been replaced by ESPN Game Day. The station, which carried 14 hours of local programming until July, is now carrying ESPN's full slate of shows.
NBA TIPOFF: NBC will begin its NBA season with a doubleheader — Orlando-Indiana and Portland-L.A. Lakers — on Christmas Day beginning at 3 p.m.
NBC has a new lineup: Marv Albert takes over for Bob Costas on play-by-play; Ahmad Rashad replaced Hannah Storm on the pregame show; and P.J. Carlisemo and former Phoenix guard Kevin Johnson join the studio crew.
NBC also is miking up refs to try to spice things up.
The question is: Will anyone watch? The NBA ratings have been sinking fast in the post-Jordan era.
John Fay covers radio/TV sports for The Enquirer. He can be reached at (513) 768-8445.
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