ESPN’s Pam Ward selected as CoSIDA’s 2010 Jake Wade Award recipient
ESPN play-by-play announcer for football and women's basketball, among other sports, Ward will receive the Wade Award July 7 during CoSIDA's annual convention. The Jake Wade Award is given to individuals in the media for outstanding contribution to intercollegiate athletics.
written by Tammy Boclair, current Vice President, Alday Communications, Inc. and former CoSIDA President (2003-04)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Pam Ward has an undeniable passion for college athletics that has allowed her to become a groundbreaker in the broadcasting world and has helped her establish her voice as a constant and professional presence in multiple arenas.
For her outstanding contribution in media to the field of intercollegiate athletics, Ward has been selected as the 2010 recipient of CoSIDA’s Jake Wade Award.
Ward will receive the honor on Tuesday, July 6, at the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) annual convention in San Francisco. The honor will be presented during the awards luncheon at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
Ward joins five of her ESPN colleagues as Jake Wade Award recipients, including Rosa Gatti (1987), Jim Simpson (1994), Ron Franklin (1997), Dick Vitale (2001) and Robin Roberts (2002).
On Nov. 22, 2000, Ward became the first woman to serve as play-by-play announcer for a college football game on a national network when she worked the Bowling Green-Toledo contest for ESPN2.
The following season she was elevated to her current role as a full-time college football announcer. She has worked in that capacity since and has come to stand out in the fact that her work is not regarded as a novelty.
“Pam is a great partner and true professional,” Chris Spielman, her former Big 10 broadcast partner, said. “She is such a hard worker and is always prepared. Her work ethic and professionalism made me a better analyst.”
Long before she added college football to her duties, Ward was a longstanding and recognizable voice in women's college basketball. She has called women's games regularly since 1992, first for Home Team Sports (HTS) and now for the ESPN Networks. She has worked at the highest collegiate level of competition - the NCAA Women's Final Four.
Since 2001, she has served as the studio host of WNBA telecasts, which in 2003 added a half-hour pre-game show WNBA Shootaround. Ward has also hosted NBA Today, NBA 2Night, NHL 2Night, NFL Tonight and for ESPN Radio The NFL on ESPN Radio and major league baseball pre- and post-game shows. Prior to joining ESPN, Ward worked as an anchor/host at WBAL-Radio in Baltimore, Md., hosting WBAL’s Baltimore Ravens’ Sunday pre-game show and was a fill-in sports anchor on WBAL-TV in Baltimore. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in communications,
Ward provides a fair and well-prepared call for both teams that celebrates the participants of the contest rather than the producers of the broadcast.
Her approach always has been a personal one. She has established deep and long-lasting relationships throughout the collegiate athletics world.
Simply put, Ward is more than a voice describing the action. She is a part of the fabric that makes college athletics a unique American institution.
About Jake Wade
Jake Wade was a widely acclaimed sports journalist and national magazine contributor for Charlotte Observer for 16 years and later served as sports information director at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from 1946-62. A 1923 UNC graduate, Wade was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. He died in 1962.