Terrance Patrick Gannon (born November 1, 1963, in Joliet, Illinois) is a sportscaster for NBC Sports and Golf Channel, currently announcing golf and figure skating. Although he is currently most closely associated with figure skating and golf, he is known as one of the "most versatile" announcers, having covered everything from college basketball and football to rugby and cycling.
Video Terry Gannon
College basketball
Gannon began his basketball career at Joliet Catholic High School in Joliet, Illinois, where his father was a coach. Upon his father's recommendation, he took four years of tap dancing with his mother, who was a tap-dancing instructor. He was also a pitcher and shortstop on the baseball team. He was an All-Chicago selection in both basketball and baseball.
After graduating from high school in 1981 Gannon attended NC State in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he played college basketball as part of the Wolfpack under coach Jim Valvano, where he was recognized as Academic All-America twice and NC State's all-time leading free throw shooter. In 1983, he was a part of the "Cardiac Pack" national championship-winning team that upset the Houston Cougars for the 1983 NCAA title. In 1983, he was the leading three-point shooter in the United States.
After graduating with a degree in history from NC State in 1985, he worked as a graduate assistant for Coach Jim Valvano for a year as he originally wanted to coach basketball. He went into sportscasting soon afterwards. In 2017, NC State announced that it would induct the entire 1983 men's basketball team into its Athletic Hall of Fame in September 2018.
Maps Terry Gannon
Broadcasting career
Early career
With an offer to play basketball in Europe, he consulted with Coach Valvano, who advised Gannon against it. In 1987, he began broadcasting on Valvano's TV and radio shows for regionally televised basketball games, and soon became a regular basketball game analyst. Gannon credits Valvano for his career, noting that the coach had told his players that basketball "shouldn't be your entire life, it shouldn't consume you". From 1990 to 1994, he was the announcer for the Charlotte Knights, a Minor League Baseball team in Charlotte.
ABC and ESPN
In 1991 he started working for ABC as a commentator for college basketball. He also appeared on the weekly show Wide World of Sports, which covered an array of arcane sports from ski jumping to supercross.
In the early 1990s, he was asked to travel to Tokyo, Japan, to cover figure skating, a sport he had not followed. Since then, he has announced for a wide variety of sporting events as has been called one of the "most versatile" announcers in TV sports. Before broadcasting a new sport, Gannon approaches it "as if it was a history project", by learning a sport's rules, key athletes, and key terms.
During his career at ESPN and ABC (which was merged with ESPN) from 1991 to 2010, Gannon handled play-by-play coverage for college basketball and football. He was an announcer on ABC's coverage of the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Gannon served as the studio host for ABC Sports' coverage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup and has hosted WTA Professional Tennis. Gannon has hosted the Tour de France three times, the Indianapolis 500 and Belmont Stakes once, and three times called the play-by-play at the Little League World Series. By the time he left in 2010, his main tasks were play-by-play coverage for the NBA and WNBA as well as tower announcer and host for golf.
On ABC's Wide World of Sports, Gannon has covered alpine skiing, ski jumping, supercross motorcycle racing, beach volleyball, mountain biking, the Special Olympics, the Goodwill Games, and the Tournament of Roses Parade.
NBC Sports
In 2010, he joined the broadcast team of the Golf Channel, which is owned by the NBC Sports Group. His primary duties are play-by-play announcer on PGA Tour coverage for the Golf Channel, as well as figure skating and rugby for NBC Sports. He also covers a variety of sports during the Olympics: in the 2010 Winter Olympics, Gannon served as a daytime host on Universal Sports. In the 2012 Summer Olympics, he called rowing and Canoeing.
For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Gannon partnered with two figure skaters, 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski and three-time U.S. national champion Johnny Weir, to call figure skating live for its daytime broadcast as backups for the main team who were broadcast during primetime. They were a massive success and NBC promoted all three to serve as its lead figure skating broadcast team. In 2017 he signed a five-year contract extension with NBC and the Golf Channel.
For the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, Gannon, Lipinski, and Weir jointly announced figure skating, as well as the Closing Ceremony. He also called ice dancing with Tanith White.
Timeline
Career timeline
- 1987-1994: college basketball analyst for Raycom Sports and Jefferson-Pilot Sports
- 1990-1994: announcer for the class AAA baseball team the Charlotte Knights
- 1991-1994: play-by-play announcer for Jefferson-Pilot's coverage of college baseball
- 1991-1994: college basketball analyst for ABC and ESPN
- 1995-2009: college basketball play-by-play for ABC and ESPN
- 1995-1998: play-by-play, Wide World of Sports
- 1995-2009; play-by-play, College Football on ABC
- 1995-2008: lead play-by-play, figure skating on ABC
- 1999-2013: tower announcer/host, PGA Tour on ABC and Golf on ESPN
- 2004-2012: lead play-by-play, WNBA on ESPN
- 2010-present: tower announcer/host, Golf Channel
- 2010-present: lead play-by-play, figure skating, NBC Sports
- 2010-2013: play-by-play, NBA on ESPN
- 2013-present: substitute host, Golf Channel on NBC
Major events
- 1995-1997 Tour de France, ABC studio host
- 1995-1996 Little League World Series, ABC
- 1999 Little League World Series, ABC
- 2002 FIFA World Cup, ABC studio host
- 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, ABC studio host
- 2004 Indianapolis 500, ABC studio host
- 2006 Belmont Stakes, ABC studio host
- 2010 Winter Olympics, Universal Sports daytime host
- 2012 Summer Olympics, NBC commentator, rowing and canoeing
- 2014 Winter Olympics, NBC commentator, figure skating and short track speed skating
- 2016 Summer Olympics, NBC main tower host, golf
- 2018 Winter Olympics, NBC commentator, figure skating (including ice dancing), Closing Ceremony
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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