"Homerun!"
"Touchdown!"
"Slam dunk!"
The world of sports broadcasting is Ian Eagle 's passion.
A Lifelong Dream
"I knew at age nine that I was interested in becoming a sportscaster," says Eagle, play-by-play announcer for the NFL, NCAA tournament and Army-Navy football game. He used to turn the TV sound down to do his own play-by-play. "I had a real passion for sports and loved to talk. Broadcasting seemed like the perfect career for me."
Eagle knew it would take more than living room practice in order pursue his dream, so the summer after his junior year at Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY), he interned at WFAN-AM, the top sports radio station in the country, and started networking. "I returned to Syracuse for my senior year confident that I could make it in this business," Eagle explains.
This broadcast journalism major also interned for the Syracuse CBS affiliate for three years while in school. A mere three days after he graduated, Eagle began working for WFAN as a producer. Within a year and a half, he made his way onto the airwaves with his own sports talk show. Fast forward: He became the NJ Nets' radio voice in 1994 at age 25, the youngest in the NBA, and afterwards was hired as the Nets' TV voice. Four years later he added CBS Sports to his resume by working NFL and college basketball games. Eagle's also done play-by-play for tennis, boxing and even for the Sony PSP game NBA '06.
There's Still Homework.
The job's not all fun and football games, though, warns Eagle. "For an NFL game, I probably prepare 25 to 30 hours during the week (research, interviews, watching game tape, etc.) before I travel to the broadcast site."
Eagle adds, "If you're doing your job well, the information you've gathered is seamlessly woven into the broadcast."
Beyond stats, Eagle advises taking a variety of liberal arts courses, too. "Writing effectively is imperative, and having a background in topics outside of sports (history, pop culture and politics) can only make you a better broadcaster."
>> Eagle Sound Byte: "In this business you never know when your next 'break' is going to come; you just have to be ready when it does."
About the author:
http://www.vickisalemi.com
Vicki Salemi is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.
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