John Saunders, a widely known ESPN and ABC sportscaster who guided viewers through many premier sporting events over the last 30 years, died Wednesday, ESPN and his family said.
Advertisement
Saunders joined ESPN as a SportsCenter anchor in 1986.
Saunders covered college football, basketball and the National Hockey League for the network and was the anchor of SportsCenter and The Sports Reporters.
No cause of death was given by the network.
His death was announced Wednesday by ESPN, for which he was the host of a weekly roundtable program, The Sports Reporters.
Saunders was a close friend of the late N.C. State basketball coach Jim Valvano, for whom the foundation was founded after his death from cancer in 1993. Mr. Saunders has been the master of ceremonies at Vitale’s V Foundation fundraiser in 10 of its 11 years, said the college basketball analyst.
God bless John Saunders and his family. I said, John, do me a favor.
He would move on to work for the following years as a sports anchor at various TV stations across Canada, such as CKNY-TV the city of North Bay, Ontario, ATV News in the maritime province of New Brunswick, and finally for CITY-TV, in the city of Toronto for two years, until 1982. However, maybe the best one came from his employer at ESPN who put together this awesome tribute video honoring his life and work.
He handled virtually every kind of broadcasting assignment from play-by-play reporting of men’s college basketball to sideline coverage of football and other sports.
“John was an extraordinary talent and his friendly, informative style has been a warm welcome to sports fans for decades”, ESPN President John Skipper said in a statement.
One of saddest days of my life today as I grieve suddenly losing my best friend of 42 years, John Saunders. He played hockey and received a scholarship at Western Michigan in the mid-1970s before transferring to Ryerson Polytechnical and eventually becoming an all-star player for the Ontario University Athletic Association. His wide range of accomplishments across numerous sports and championship events is among the most impressive this industry has ever seen, ESPN President John Skipper said in a statement.
Advertisement
“He was a very proud individual … had an incredible career but one thing he never did, he never forgot where he came from”, said Beauregard. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this extremely hard time.. Saunders is survived by a wife and two daughters.
