Mike Tirico

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Michael Jonathon Tirico (born December 13, 1966 in Queens, New York) is the lead broadcaster for ESPN's presentation of Monday Night Football, and second lead broadcaster for ESPN's presentation of the NBA. In addition, Tirico hosts a multitude of programming on ESPN/ABC. He was the host of ABC's golf coverage from 1996 to 2007, and continues in that capacity for ESPN's U.S. Open, Masters and British Open golf coverage. He also joined ESPN's broadcast team for the 2009 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Tirico was formerly a play-by-play announcer for college football on both ESPN and ABC.

Biography

Career at ABC and ESPN

Tirico joined ESPN in 1991 as a SportsCenter anchor, after 4 years as Sports Director at CBS affiliate WTVH-TV in Syracuse, New York. Tirico is noted for his versatile nature and the variety of assignments he has handled for SportsCenter, Tirico has handled the play-by-play for ESPN's Thursday night college football package (1997 to 2005), college basketball coverage (1997 to 2002), NBA coverage (2002 to present), and PGA golf coverage for ABC (1996 to 2006). Tirico has also hosted studio coverage of various ESPN and ABC covered events, including a stint on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown (previously known as NFL Prime Monday) from 1993–2001 and ABC's NBA studio shows. He also broadcasts NBA games on ESPN/ABC. He anchored the 2009 U.S. Open Tennis Championships with Chris Fowler and Hannah Storm.

Tirico is known for his often smooth and professional delivery. He has been criticized for overemphasizing star players, avoiding comment on negative play and off-court/field activities, and in general looking out for the PR interests of the professional sports organizations that he broadcasts for.

Broadcasting partners

Tirico has been paired in the college football booth with Tim Brant, Terry Bowden, Mike Gottfried, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and David Norrie. His partner in NBA coverage have included Tom Tolbert, Hubie Brown, and Greg Anthony, and he has worked with Curtis Strange, Judy Rankin, Nick Faldo, and Paul Azinger in PGA coverage. He has worked with Len Elmore on college basketball coverage. Tirico is also partners with Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski on Monday Night Football.

On March 22 and March 23, 2007, he appeared as a guest host, filling in for Michael Wilbon, alongside Tony Kornheiser on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.

Radio career

Tirico hosted his first show from WAER radio in Syracuse, N.Y., the station where he started his sports broadcasting career, on the campus of Syracuse University. Fellow Orange alum Bob Costas was his first guest. On Sept. 20, 2007, Tirico began hosting the short-lived Mike Tirico Show on ESPN Radio from 1–3 p.m. weekdays (Eastern time). The show filled the empty seat left by Dan Patrick. During the spring of 2008, the title of The Mike Tirico Show, which featured Scott Van Pelt as a co-host, was changed to Tirico and Van Pelt. On May 19, 2009, Tirico announced he would be leaving the show to focus more on his television play-by-play duties, and the name of the show became The Scott Van Pelt Show.

External links

• Tirico Set to Join Elite Group on 'MNF'