J-Speaks: The Passing of a Well Respected Broadcast Legend at ESPN

One of the most important aspects of being a great broadcast journalist is to be versatile. To be knowledgeable in many areas of your field of this particular kind of journalism. For 30 years, ESPN had that and then some from an Ontario, Canada native who knew the game of college football as well as he did the game of hockey. No one was better at hosting halftime shows as well as one of the ESPN’s biggest shows on Sunday mornings. He was also a proud mentor to many at ESPN and was a founding member of the board of directors of a major foundation for cancer research. Last week without warning, we said goodbye to this great on-air personality.

Last week, John Peterson Saunders, who worked for “The World Wide Leader in Sports” since 1986 passed away. He was 61 years old. He is survived by his wife Wanda and their two daughters Aleah and Jenna.

“This tragic news brings us unspeakable sorrow,” the family said in a statement a week ago. “John was the patriarch of our family, and we can’t believe he is gone. We are sincerely touched by the outpouring of support and sadness, which is a reflection of the character and integrity that defined him.

This passing is very shocking because according to reports Saunders did not have any serious health issues and just the week before appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Washington, D.C.

Although the family also did say in their issued statement a week ago that Saunders was not feeling well physically in recent days and was unresponsive early on the morning of his passing.

Nowhere was that more so than from the colleagues of the Sunday morning ESPN show, “The Sports Reporters,” which Saunders had hosted since Sept. 2001 succeeding Dick Schaap, the father of ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap.

Saunders absence was very much felt during this past Sunday’s episode where regular hosts in author and journalist Mitch Albom; New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica; former sports columnist for The New York Times William C. Rhoden and former sports writer for The Boston Globe Bob Ryan each took turns expressing their condolences as well delivering well deserved tributes about how Saunders touched their lives.

“The phenomenal public outpouring of grief and love for him speaks for itself,” Ryan said during his tribute this past Sunday. “Yes, he was a very good guy. We will miss our friend, most all. ESPH has lost a first-ballot Hall of Fame TV talent.”

Those same feelings were echoed by many of his colleagues within ESPN that he was very popular with and say him as a mentor as well.                            

“He was a big brother. A father figure,” Stephen A. Smith, co-host of ESPN’s First Take with Molly Qerim and Max Kellerman, weekdays from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. on ESPN 2 said while shedding tears last week about his colleague who he worked with on NBA Countdown in the middle of the 2000s.

“Somehow, someway he always had the strength to give guys like myself the level of guidance. That big brother that we all needed. We talk a lot about great individuals that worked at this company, especially my man Stuart Scott, who I still miss to this day, but I always called John Saunders, ‘The God Father,’ because he was one of the originals… He always was a mentor and an advisor. He meant so much to me.”

ESPN College Basketball analyst Dick Vitale said that Saunders, “represented everything that was good in a human being. “He was all about family and helping people. He was as good as it gets, and he had deep loyalty and love for others.”

NFL Insider analyst Chris Mortensen, who is currently on leave being treated for throat cancer said on Twitter, “The news of John Saunders’ death could not be more crushing. We all loved him dearly. We grieve. We will miss him. Can’t replace the man.”

Co-host of ESPN’s “His and Hers” weekdays on ESPN 2 Jemele Hill alongside Michael Smith also expressed their feelings about what Saunders meant to them.

Smith said on the show last week that he was late for church on many occasions to catch Saunders and Schaap before him on “The Sports Reporters.” He even said that last in August of last year, he got to host the show as Saunders’ replacement that Sunday and he even got to sit in his chair.

“It’s really hard not just for me, but a lot of people here,” Hill who was just with Saunders at the NABJ last Friday for a panel discussion along with fellow ESPN colleague Jay Harris said. “For him to tell his story and share with a lot of people who want to work at ESPN, we can only be so lucky the kind of lengthy and prominent career that he’s had in sports broadcasting. For them to hear him go through what he’d been through on his journey was very inspiring and motivating.”

That motivation and inspiration for sports began for Saunders in his aforementioned place of birth in Ontario where he had a particular fondness for Canada’s famed sport hockey.

He was an all-star defenseman in the Montreal junior leagues. Both Saunders and his brother Bernie received scholarships to play hockey at Western Michigan University from 1974-76.

Saunders transferred to Ryerson University in Toronto where he played for the Rams hockey team from 1976-78. In his last year, he was named to the Ontario University Athletic Association All-Star team.

His broadcast journey began as a news director for CKNS Radio in Espanola, Ontario in 1978. Saunders then became a sports anchor at CKNY-TV in North Bay, Ontario from 1978-79 and then took the same position one year later at ATV News in New Brunswick. The next two years, Saunders was the lead sports anchor for CITY-TV in Toronto.

His first sports broadcast job in the United States was the lead sports anchor at WMAR-TV in Baltimore, MD from 1982-1986.

He would then move on to join ESPN, “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” and became not only one of the most versatile broadcasters in the sports world, but a trail blazer that showed many people of color that they can make their dreams of doing what he did a reality.

His legendary resume of work at ESPN consist of hosting the aforementioned ESPN Sunday staple show “The Sports Reporters,” since September 2001. From 1987-89, he co-hosted “NFL Primetime” alongside the recently retired Tom Jackson.

For 12 years, Saunders hosted the network’s National Hockey League (NHL) coverage and then became the studio host of the American Broadcasting Company’s (ABC) coverage of college football. He also hosted ABC’s coverage of baseball under the Baseball Night in America banner.

Saunders also served as anchor of 1995 World Series for ABC between Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians. The Braves won their third World Series in team history in six games.

During that time frame, Saunders worked as the play-by-play commentator for Canada’s new professional basketball team the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1995-2001. He was eventually replaced by Chuck Swirly.

From 2002-2004 and on occasion in 2007, Saunders was a play-by-play commentator for ESPN’s NBA coverage mainly on Sunday evenings. He also did NBA broadcast when they were on ABC, which parent company is Walt Disney as well as being the studio host for ESPN’s pregame show “NBA Shootaround,” from 2004-2006 alongside Stephen A. Smith.

Saunders called most of the Team U.S.A.’s games on ESPN during the 2007 FIBA Americas Qualifying Tournament.

One year later, he began hosting the 7 p.m. Sunday night broadcast of ESPN’s flagship show “Sportscenter,” during the NFL season with “Sunday NFL Countdown” host Chris Berman and Jackson.

John Saunders was our friend, and he was your friend. You were immediately comfortable with John in 30 seconds,” Berman said. “I was fortunate enough to be comfortable with him for 30 years. We knew him for his understated demeanor and understated smile, but we also knew him for his firm commitment to getting things right and treating people right. John was old school, even Old World. Maybe because he was Canadian. May because he was John.”

While he became well known for his greatness as one of the most versatile broadcasters both in the U.S. and in Canada, Saunders greatest work came off the television set where he was a founding member of the board of directors for The V Foundation For Cancer Research, which is named in the honor of the late great basketball coach of the North Carolina State Wolfpack and close friend of his Jimmy Valvano, who passed away from bone cancer 17 years ago.

The charity has raised nearly $90 million dollars with all of the money going to fund a cure for cancer.

“His work with The V Foundation was so special,” Vitale said. “He loved Jimmy V and poured his heart and soul into the cause. He was always willing to share and give, and he played a vital role in the success of helping so many.”

John Saunders was many things as a broadcaster. He was knowledgeable. He was precise. He was exceptional. He was human. Saunders was a relentless worker. Someone with great character, demeanor and heart and most of all, he had the bravery to be himself on camera and had the willingness to share his knowledge with others. Because of that, we get to see and listen to the likes of Stephen A. Smith, Michael Smith, Jemele Hill, Jay Harris and many other people of color tells what is going on in the world of sports each day.

John Saunders was a special man who had a special gift and he used that gift very well and earned the respect of his colleagues that he worked with and even became close friends with those that he worked with.

If ESPN had a Mount Rushmore it would consist of Chris Berman, Bob Ley, Dick Schaap, Stuart Scott and John Saunders.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 8/10/16 edition of ESPN’s First Take with Molly Qerim, Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman on ESPN 2; 8/10/16 edition of “His and Hers,” with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill on ESPN 2; 8/11/16 New York Newsday article “Popular ESPN Host, Mentor,” by Neil Best; 8/11/16 espn.com news service article, “Longtime ESPN Host John Saunders dead at Age 61;” 8/14/16 Tampa Bay Times article on www.tampabay.com/sports, “ESPN’s Sports Reporters Airs Appropriate Tribute To Classy John Saunders;” 8/15/16 article on www.theundefeated.com, “Hosts of The Sports Reporters Remember John Saunders in Touching Tributes,” by Maya A. Jones;  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Saunders_(journalist); http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Braves.