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2019 Special Awards Announcements
Nearly 60 recipients selected for recognition.
ESPN’s College GameDay crew will receive the 2019 Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award for contributions to intercollegiate athletics and supporting CoSIDA’s mission. Rowe is the 2019 recipient of CoSIDA’s highest media honor, the Jake Wade Award, Both awards will be presented at the 2019 CoSIDA Convention on June 10.
College GameDay Built by the Home Depot, ESPN’s premier traveling college football pregame show, and
Holly Rowe, long-time ESPN award-winning reporter, are the 2019 recipients of two prestigious honors presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
College GameDay, with a crew of more than 100 people each week, is the pregame show televised by ESPN as part of the network's extensive coverage of college football each Saturday morning during the season. In recognition of their professional achievements and work with CoSIDA and its members over a long period of time, the
College GameDay talent, staff and production crew will receive the 2019 Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award. The Keith Jackson honor is given to those who have made a lasting contribution of excellence to intercollegiate athletics and has been a loyal supporter of CoSIDA and its mission.
Rowe will receive the 2019 Jake Wade Award, presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in the media to the field of intercollegiate athletics.
“The Keith Jackson and Jake Wade Awards are two of the highest external honors CoSIDA presents each year,” noted Rob Knox, CoSIDA President and Towson University Associate Media Relations Director. “We congratulate our long-time friends and partners at ESPN for having recipients for both of these 2019 awards.”
CoSIDA is comprised of more than 3,000 intercollegiate athletic communications and media relations professionals from colleges, universities and athletic conferences at all divisions of competition in the United States and Canada.
“College GameDay and Holly Rowe have been great ambassadors for college sports and support our members with excellent and consistent storytelling,” Knox stated. “The traveling show is a must-see event for sports fans during college football season and a must attend event for the community its originating from each week. The entire GameDay crew, from talent to production to operations and beyond, is committed to telling the top stories and raising the entertainment value every weekend."
Knox continued, "Holly Rowe’s passion, work ethic, strength, professionalism and consistent positive attitude is an inspiration to many. She has made extraordinary efforts, across many sports, to tell the compelling stories of college student-athletes, coaches and their programs and is one of the top interviewers in sports today.”
Both these awards will be presented on June 10 during CoSIDA's annual convention in Orlando. The CoSIDA event takes place at the Orlando World Center Marriott in conjunction with NACDA and Affiliates Convention Week.
KEITH JACKSON ETERNAL FLAME AWARD
ESPN College GameDay Built by the Home Depot
“ESPN’s College GameDay has been the wake-up call for college football Saturday mornings in America for more than three decades. The dedicated GameDay crew — with more than 100 members each Saturday on-location — consistently and relentlessly tells the compelling stories of student-athletes, fuels the unquenchable passion of fans and provides relevant commentary on the significant issues of the day,” noted Herb Vincent, SEC associate commissioner and CoSIDA first vice president who is coordinator of the Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award.
Vincent continued, “This program and the people, both in front of the camera and behind it, continue to demonstrate the long and consistent commitment to excellence that were demonstrated by the life’s work of the great Keith Jackson for whom this award is named.”
Originating from the site of one of the sport’s best storyline each week, with fans cheering and celebrating wildly in the background, College GameDay host Rece Davis and analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack and Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica talk college football from 9 a.m. - noon ET, reporting on the top teams, games, players and storylines while holding interviews with coaches and ending each week with the highly anticipated
Saturday Selections and Corso’s legendary Headgear Selection. Maria Taylor serves as GameDay reporter, while, Jen Lada, Tom Rinaldi and Gene Wojciechowski contribute reports, interviews and features.
Many other personalities have contributed to the show since it originated in 1987, including longtime host Chris Fowler (1993-2014).
College GameDay continues to be recognized as sports media’s most successful studio show, as the premier pregame show was awarded the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Studio Show Weekly in 2018, winning that category for the fifth consecutive year and its eighth time overall in the category. The show’s journalism and operations technical expertise was also recognized in 2018, capturing Sports Emmys for Outstanding Short Feature and Outstanding Tech Team Studio. To date, the show has won 10 Emmys in the last 11 years.
Representing the more than 100 staffers that contribute to the show’s success, here is the show's current leadership:
On air talent
Host:
Rece Davis
Analysts:
Lee Corso,
Kirk Herbstreit,
Desmond Howard,
David Pollack
Reporter:
Maria Taylor
Contributors:
Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica,
Jen Lada,
Tom Rinaldi,
Gene Wojciechowski
Producers
Producer:
Jim Gaiero
Coordinating Producer:
Drew Gallagher
Contributing Producer:
Aaron Katzman
Director
Rodney Perez
Lead Operations
Lu Fisher
Judi Weiss
For the first few years (1987-1993), College GameDay originated from ESPN’s main location in Bristol, Connecticut. On November 13, 1993, College GameDay televised from South Bend for No. 1 Florida State at No. 2 Notre Dame, its first of now more than 360 different road shows.
Additional facts from football’s College GameDay:
- There have been 361 GameDay football road shows since November 13, 1993. GameDay has been to 83 different cities, and 71 different schools have hosted the production
- Lee Fitting, ESPN Vice President, Production, served as long-time producer of College GameDay from 2002-2015 and played an integral role in the growth of the property. He now oversees GameDay in his current ESPN role as a Vice President of Production.
- Current analyst Kirk Herbstreit has served in this role since 1996 and was awarded the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Studio Analyst twice (2010, 2011) for this work.
- Chris Fowler served for 24 years as host of College GameDay (from 1990-2014) before a seamless transition to Rece Davis (2015-present). Fowler remains with ESPN as its lead college football play-by-play voice.
- Analyst Lee Corso is the only current member of the GameDay staff who has been part of the production since the inception, starting in 1987. (Corso himself was a previous CoSIDA Jake Wade Award recipient, receiving the honor in 2011.)
- Corso has picked 58 different mascots as part of his pregame game winner announcements and has made 328 picks through the 2018 season. This Corso tradition began in 1996. His all-time record is 214-115 (.650 winning percentage).
JAKE WADE AWARD
Holly Rowe – ESPN
Holly Rowe joined ESPN on a regular basis in August 1998 after serving as a sideline reporter for select ESPN telecasts in 1997 and for ABC Sports from 1995-96. Today, Rowe is a reporter for some of ESPN’s most high profile events, including the College Football Playoff, the Women’s Final Four, the Women’s College World Series, and the WNBA in addition to extensive regular season work across a bevy of sports which includes college football, college basketball, college soccer, swimming, track & field, the Little League World Series of baseball and softball and more.
Rowe also has provided play-by-play commentary for women’s college basketball, softball, volleyball and gymnastics for ESPN. In 2018, she called her first professional game, serving as the play-by-play commentator for ESPN2's WNBA season opener. She is also a contributor for espnW.
Over the last several years, Rowe has fought a very public battle after being diagnosed with Stage IV Metastatic Melanoma (skin cancer) while continuing to stay on air doing the job she is so passionate about. Resilient and determined throughout her treatment, Rowe is a vocal advocate for cancer research and prevention. She recently shared publicly that she finished her last round of chemotherapy.
Rowe now joins Corso in the illustrious list of past Jake Wade Award winners. Other previous honorees include: 2018 honoree Jim Nantz (CBS Sports); ESPN’s Rece Davis (2016), Beth Mowins (2014), Robin Roberts (2002), Dick Vitale (2001) and Rosa Gatti (1987); CBS Sports’ Tim Brando (2009); USA Today’s Christine Brennan (2003) and Steve Weiberg (1998); Verne Lundquist (CBS Sports, ABC Sports, 2015); New York Times’ Dave Anderson (1992); and Keith Jackson, ABC, 1978).
"This is an incredible honor for me. To be included with the list of people who have contributed so much to college athletics is humbling," Rowe stated. "First and foremost, I would be nothing without the sports information directors who have helped me for over 20 years. They are our lifeline to teams. I am so grateful for all the wonderful women and men I have partnered with to tell great stories. ESPN has been a wonderful home for me and I am lucky to cover the most compelling sports in America. Coaches, athletes and fans have made my job so delightful. CoSIDA, I thank you for this honor. I am so grateful to do something I love so much."
Among her additional awards, Rowe was honored as the 2018 Media Person of the Year by The Athletic in its first year of the award, and received the WNBA Connecticut Sun’s Margo Dydek
Award as its 2018 Woman of Inspiration this past summer. In April of 2017, Rowe received the USBWA Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award.
Rowe is a producer and writer of documentaries and features that have aired on ESPN, KBYU TV, Fox 13 TV (Salt Lake City) and which have been nominated for Emmy Awards.
Prior to her work at ESPN and Fox, Rowe served as the play-by-play voice for BYU women’s basketball, volleyball and gymnastics from 1993-2009 and as a BYU and Air Force football sideline reporter for the Blue and White Sports Network from 1993-97.
Lead photo: Production crew on the set of College GameDay Built by the Home Depot from Washington State on Oct. 20, 2018 as the Cougars faced Pac-12 opponent Oregon. (Photo by Allen Kee / ESPN Images)
College GameDay Quartet at Penn State: L to R: Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit on the set of College GameDay Built by the Home Depot at Penn State University on September 29, 2018. (Photo by Allen Kee / ESPN Images)
(Photo by Allen Kee / ESPN Images)
Rowe and Florida Softball Player Hannah Rogers: Hannah Rogers was a 4-time All-American pitcher for the Gators.
Rowe and Clemson/Orange Bowl: Rowe with Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson after the Clemson win over Oklahoma at the 2015 College Football Playoff Semifinals held at the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, FL on December 31, 2015. (Photo: Robert Alam/Icon Sportswire)