ESPN president John Skipper saluted Saunders for his “extraordinary talent” and “friendly, informative style”.
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Saunders, with ESPN for almost 30 years, hosted studio and play-by-play programming.
Hannah Storm delivers the news of John Saunders’ surprising death at age 61. He worked as sports anchor at CKNY-TV in North Bay, Ontario, from 1978 to 1979, and at ATV News in New Brunswick in 1979-80 before he became sports anchor for CITY-TV in Toronto from 1980 to 1982. Those who have followed Saunders’ career – seemingly throughout our lifetimes as sports fans and ESPN viewers – will surely smile at some of the older footage included in this piece.
Saunders joined ESPN in 1986 as a “SportsCenter” anchor. “Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this extremely hard time”.
Saunders earned a scholarship from Western Michigan University, where he was a hockey defenceman from 1974-76, before transferring to Ryerson in Toronto, where he was an OUAA all-star.
She had to announce the death of a colleague and good friend.
After joining the network in 1986, he spent 30 years covering the National Hockey League, college football, and college basketball, in addition to hosting shows like SportsCenter and The Sports Reporters, which helped wean eager NFL fans on Sunday mornings. He was also an anchor for sportscenter and was a fixture on the “Sports Reporters” since 2001 after the passing of Dick Schaap. He came to ESPN from WMAR-TV in Baltimore.
“Generous, talented and beloved” were just a few of the words Storm used to describe him.
John Saunders’ history with sports started long before his years of commentating and hosting broadcasts. His work with The V Foundation was so special – he loved Jimmy V and poured his heart and soul into the cause.
Indianapolis Colts player Pat McAfee, after admitting that he found most ESPN personalities tough to like, mentions that John was “somebody you couldn’t help but love”.
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Saunders, who signed a new contract with ESPN in 2015, seemed to revel in his work, once invoking James Brown to describe his double-duty basketball coverage for ESPN and ABC: “I’m the hardest working man in show business”.
