Jason "Jay" Crawford (born July 4, 1965) is an American TV news and sports anchor, who is best known nationally for his time at

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Crawford anchored the live 11 p.m. edition of ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

'' with

Chris McKendry Chris McKendry (born Christine McKendry February 18, 1968) is a journalist for ESPN, a role she has served since 1996. She was co-anchor of the 11-1pm ET weekday block of live ESPN '' SportsCenter'' shows, alongside Jay Crawford. As of April 1, 20 ...

until April 2017. Prior to that, Crawford spent nine years hosting ESPN's morning show ''

Cold Pizza ''Cold Pizza'' is an American television sports morning talk show that aired weekdays on ESPN2 from 2003 to 2007. The show's style was more akin to '' Good Morning America'' than '' SportsCenter''s straight news and highlights format. It included ...

'', its successor ''

ESPN First Take ''First Take'' is an American sports talk television show on ESPN. Episodes air daily Monday through Friday, with the live episode airing from 10am ET until noon, with reruns from noon to 2pm ET on ESPN2 and from 2 to 4pm ET on ESPNews. The sho ...

'', and ''First Take'' spinoff '' 1st and 10''. He is currently a news anchor for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliate

WKYC-TV WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the stati ...

3 in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, seen on the station's 5 p.m. newscast since January 2020.

Biography

Early life

Born in

Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Erie County, Ohio, Erie County, Ohio, United States. Situated along the shores of Lake Erie in the northern part of the state, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( wes ...

, Crawford graduated from Perkins High School in Sandusky, Ohio in 1983. He went on to graduate from

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...

with a bachelor's degree in Radio, Television, and Film in 1987.

Career

Prior to joining

he was the local sports director for

WFTS-TV WFTS-TV (channel 28), branded as ABC Action News, is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company alongside Bradenton-licensed Ion Tele ...

Tampa, FL Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

from 1998 to 2003. Prior to that stint he had a similar role at

WBNS-TV WBNS-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside the company's sole radio properties, WBNS (1460 AM) and WBNS-FM (97.1). The stations share studios on Twi ...

Columbus, OH Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and ...

from 1993 to 1998. He was a weekend sports anchor for

WTIC-TV WTIC-TV (channel 61) is a television station in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Waterbury-licensed CW affiliate WCCT-TV ...

Hartford, CT Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded County (United States), county government in 19 ...

from 1992 to 1993. He started his sports career in 1987 at

WYMT-TV WYMT-TV (channel 57) is a television station licensed to Hazard, Kentucky, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield region. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Black Gold Boulevard off ...

Hazard, Kentucky Hazard is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in, and the county seat of, Perry County, Kentucky, Perry County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 5,263 at the 2020 Census. History Local landowner Elijah Combs, Elijah Comb ...

. Crawford made three appearances as a minor league baseball pitcher in 2005, splitting time between two independent teams, the St. Paul Saints and the Long Beach Armada. He registered ad with a 2.25 ERA, and in his final outing, Crawford threw two hitless innings, striking out each batter he faced using a change-up that reached a top speed of 62 mph, while his fastball was recorded at 93 mph. On May 21, it was announced via Twitter that in July 2012, Crawford will co-anchor ''

'' in the noon slot with

Chris Mckendry Chris McKendry (born Christine McKendry February 18, 1968) is a journalist for ESPN, a role she has served since 1996. She was co-anchor of the 11-1pm ET weekday block of live ESPN '' SportsCenter'' shows, alongside Jay Crawford. As of April 1, 20 ...

replacing

John Buccigross John Buccigross (; born January 27, 1966) is an American sportscaster. He has been an anchor for ESPN since 1996.

who moves to the 11:00PM slot. In 2004, he hosted some

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

telecasts for

. On April 24, 2017, Crawford was laid off from his role as ''Sportscenter'' host in a string of cuts including over 100 ESPN employees.

Returning to Ohio

On September 26, 2017, BGSU announced that Crawford would join the university as an executive in residence. Crawford will be sharing his expertise with students and faculty in the School of Media and Communication, in the Department of Sport Management and with student-athletes. On April 11, 2018, The

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

announced that Crawford, alongside former Browns quarterback

Tim Couch Timothy Scott Couch (born July 31, 1977) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He played college football at Kentucky, where he set the Southeaster ...

, would call the Browns preseason games in 2018. On May 28, 2019;

Tegna Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into t ...

owned

affiliate

WKYC WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longti ...

channel 3 in Cleveland announced that Crawford would become the 5 p.m. news anchor when it started broadcasting in January 2020. In October 2019, he began to host an informal-style noontime show for the station, ''Lunch Break with Jay Crawford''. In January 2020, Crawford became channel 3's 5 p.m. news anchor alongside chief meteorologist Betsy Kling.

References

External links

Jay Crawford ESPN Bio

''First Take'' Show Information
* http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091 {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Jay People from Sandusky, Ohio Bowling Green State University alumni 1965 births Living people American television sports announcers American horse racing announcers Television anchors from Tampa, Florida Baseball announcers