{"id":366302,"date":"2025-12-24T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366302\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T16:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:52:14","slug":"pam-ward-leaving-espn-after-three-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366302\/","title":{"rendered":"Pam Ward leaving ESPN after three decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN celebrated longtime broadcaster Pam Ward on Tuesday morning with a video saluting her almost three-decade career following her recent retirement.<\/p>\n<p>The nearly two-and-a-half-minute video package featured salutes from WNBA legends Tamika Catchings and Rebecca Lobo, Fever coach Stephanie White, colleague Holly Rowe and others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re someone I\u2019ve looked up to,\u201d Rowe said in the video tribute. \u201cI\u2019ve always admired your courage on play-by-play for college football. \u2026 You have been so wonderful for so long and I hope you look at this past career with joy and happiness because you deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ward joined ESPN in 1996 as an ESPNEWS anchor and had last served as a play-by-play broadcaster for the network\u2019s women\u2019s college basketball, college softball and WNBA games, <a href=\"https:\/\/espnpressroom.com\/us\/bios\/ward_pam\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per her ESPN bio<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She made history in 2000 when she became the first woman to ever call a Division I college football game when she sat behind the mic for the Bowling Green vs. Toledo contest on ESPN2 on Nov. 22.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38011163\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2196322198.jpg\" alt=\"Two women wearing headsets and microphones smiling at the camera.\" class=\"wp-image-38011163\"  \/>Pam Ward (r) alongside Fever coach Stephanie White (l) in January 2025. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The 2001 season marked her first full year calling college football after previously serving as a sideline reporter for ESPN2 broadcasts in 1996.<\/p>\n<p>She earned the <a href=\"https:\/\/collegesportscommunicators.com\/sports\/2013\/5\/6\/jakewade.aspx?id=19&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jake Wade Award in 2010<\/a> from the College Sports Communicators, which is \u201cpresented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in the media to the field of intercollegiate athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During her time with the WorldWide Leader, she also appeared on shows such as \u201cWNBA Shootaround,\u201d \u201cNBA Today,\u201d \u201cNFL Tonight\u201d and \u201cNHL 2Night,\u201d and hosted \u201cThe NFL on ESPN Radio\u201d and pre- and postgame shows for MLB broadcasts on ESPN Radio.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50588235;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38011164\" width=\"888\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-85900067.jpg\" alt=\"Three women at the announcers' desk for the 2009 WNBA Draft.\" class=\"wp-image-38011164\"  \/>Pam Ward (l) during a 2009 WNBA Draft broadcast. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to miss sitting next to you calling WNBA games or college games,\u201d Lobo said in the ESPN video. \u201cThe first college game I ever did as an analyst, you were my play-by-play. You took very good care of me that 25 years and you\u2019ve taken very good care of me ever since.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve been awesome ever since I\u2019ve known you, and I appreciate everything you helped me do throughout my time at ESPN.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN celebrated longtime broadcaster Pam Ward on Tuesday morning with a video saluting her almost three-decade career following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,1161,82,1276,6998,630],"class_list":["post-366302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-espn","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-sports-media","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}