  |
||
Bruce Connal '79 was there at the beginning, starting work as an associate producer at ESPN after graduation --- a month after the network went on the air from its headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. He was hired by Chet Simmons, the first president of ESPN and a family friend who had worked with Connal's father at NBC Sports.
There was risk involved with taking a job with a start-up. "I was fortunate to have a job, but the future was uncertain with a new company," Connal recalls. "The growth has been amazing since that first year." The company has indeed expanded from the early days, when it featured obscure sports like Australian rules football. ESPN currently generates content for cable TV, radio, the Internet, and a print magazine. It was purchased in 1984 by ABC, which in turn was gobbled up by the entertainment giant Walt Disney in 1996. Connal now produces NHL broadcasts. He has pretty much "done it all" as a remote producer at games covered live by ESPN. "Stick, bat, and ball," he says. "I have worked football, baseball, and hockey, as well as college sports and everything from fencing to rugby." Over the years his duties have included editing videotape, adding graphics to live broadcasts, and supervising broadcast crews. With Connal ensconced at the fledgling network,
he was able to give his college friend Barry Sacks '81 a boost
in launching his
own sports broadcasting career. "Bruce told me the company was
starting to expand, so I applied for a job and started working
there in 1984," says Sacks. "My first job was a temporary position
as a production assistant. I made $13,000 a year and loved every
minute of it." Sacks, who had dreams of being a famous sportscaster,
instead stuck with production and steadily worked his way up the
company ladder, from full-time production assistant to associate
producer to Like Connal and Sacks, many Ithaca grads have behind-the- scenes jobs as producers, editors, and technicians. Some of them handle cameras or edit video footage, while others write and do research for documentaries and investigative pieces. Miriam Greenfield '95 is a producer for the ESPN Classic channel, which offers reruns of historic contests and frequently shows profiles of sports legends and less-famous individuals who have left their mark both on and off the field. She readily admits that the Ithaca-ESPN link was instrumental in her securing employment at the network. "I landed the job through Rob [Labay '93], who was already here," she says. "There is a very strong IC connection that helps graduates land jobs here. "Greenfield first spent five years with production teams at the SportsCenter and Sunday night NFL football broadcasts. While working for SportsCenter she discovered that her true calling was "telling stories." She began researching, filming, and editing --- digging deeper than the names and numbers that typify most sports broadcasts. In 2000 Greenfield moved to ESPN Classic, focusing on documentaries. Rob Labay '93, who started with ESPN right after graduating 10 years ago and is now a senior Avid Symphony/online editor with the company's Post Production Group, notes, "I can speak of many Ithaca alums who have worked here, both past and present, and helped to grow ESPN to what it is today. Not only have we helped graduating students get their résumé in the right hands and their foot in the door, but each day we work daily alongside and with a strong network of fellow Ithaca alums. We seem to have an Ithaca Bomber involved in every aspect of the vast company ESPN has become today."
|
||
|
