John Peterson Saunders (February 2, 1955 – August 10, 2016) was a

Canadian-American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadian ...

sports journalist. He worked for

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and ABC from 1986 until his death in 2016.

Early life and career

Saunders attended high school in

Châteauguay Châteauguay ( , , ) is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, located both on the Chateauguay River and Lac St-Louis, which is a section of the St. Lawrence River. The population of the city of Châteauguay at the 2021 Ce ...

. Saunders was an all-star defenseman in the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

junior leagues, received a scholarship and played

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the tr ...

from 1974 to 1976 with his brother, Bernie. He transferred to

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

and played for the Rams from 1976 to 1978. After the 1977–78 season, Saunders was named to the Ontario University Athletic Association All-Star team. He was the news director for CKNS Radio (

Espanola, Ontario Espanola (2016 census population 4,996) is a town in Northern Ontario, Canada, in the Sudbury District. It is situated on the Spanish River, approximately 70 kilometres west of downtown Sudbury, and just south of the junction of Highway 6 and H ...

, 1978), and sports anchor at CKNY-TV (

North Bay, Ontario North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, Ontario, Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing. North Bay developed as a railroad centre, and its airpo ...

, 1978–1979) and at ATV News (

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic Canad ...

, 1979–1980). He also served as the main sports anchor for CITY-TV (Toronto, 1980–1982). He then moved to the United States to work as a sports anchor at WMAR-TV (

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, 1982–1986).

Career at ESPN and ABC Sports

Saunders joined ESPN in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

and was the host of ESPN's ''

The Sports Reporters ''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on ESPN2 and 11:30 AM on ESPNews). It featured a roundtable discussion among four sports ...

'', starting with the illness and subsequent death of

Dick Schaap Richard Jay Schaap (September 27, 1934 – December 21, 2001) was an American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author. Early life and education Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and raised in Freeport, New York, on Long Island, Schaap began wr ...

in September 2001. He previously co-hosted '' NFL Primetime'' from 1987 to 1989. He was also the secondary studio host for the network's

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

broadcasts from 1986–87 to 1988, filling-in for lead host Tom Mees when needed. He became the lead studio host from

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

until

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and NHL on ABC from 1992 to 1994 and again from 2000 to 2004 and hosted

College Football on ABC ''ESPN College Football on ABC'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football games that are produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC in the Un ...

from 1992 to 2015. He has also hosted ABC's coverage of baseball under the '' Baseball Night in America'' banner and was involved in ESPN's coverage earlier in his career. He also anchored the

1995 World Series The 1995 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1995 season. The 91st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Atlanta Braves and the Americ ...

for ABC. Saunders' memoir, '' Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope'', which spans his three-decade career at ESPN and ABC, was published posthumously in 2017.

NBA

From

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

, and occasionally during the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

season, Saunders did play-by-play for ESPN's coverage of the NBA, mostly on Sunday nights. He was the studio host of ESPN's ''NBA Shootaround'' from

to 2006. Saunders also served as a back-up play-by-play man for '' NBA on ABC''. He called most of the Team U.S.A. games on ESPN for the

2007 FIBA Americas Championship The 2007 FIBA Americas Championships later known as the FIBA AmeriCup (or The Tournament of the Americas), was a basketball tournament held at Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, from August 22, to September 2. It was the thirteenth staging of th ...

''SportsCenter''

In 2008, he began hosting the 7pm ET Sunday ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of American cable and satellite television network ESPN. The show covers various sports teams and athletes from around the world and of ...

'' during the NFL season with Chris Berman and analyst

Tom Jackson Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

Toronto Raptors

He was the television play-by-play announcer for the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Atlantic Division (NBA) ...

from 1995 to 2001, eventually being replaced by

Chuck Swirsky Chuck Swirsky (born January 30, 1954) is an American–Canadian radio sports announcer. He is the play-by-play voice of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Swirsky's association with Chicago sports started in 1979 wi ...

Personal life

John was an advocate for juvenile diabetes research, having been diagnosed with

Type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar f ...

as an adult in the early 1980s after his then-girlfriend dragged him to the hospital to get tested. He was also a founding board member of the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research, a charity that has raised $200 million with 100% of the proceeds funding cancer research. Saunders lived in

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Greenburgh, New York, Greenburgh in the state of New Yor ...

, with his wife and children. He was the brother of former

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

player Bernie Saunders.

Death

On August 10, 2016, Saunders's wife discovered him not breathing in their New York home. Emergency responders rushed to the scene, but around 4 a.m., he was pronounced dead. He was 61 years of age. Foul play was ruled out by authorities. Family members stated Saunders had not been feeling well in the days leading up to his death but no specific cause of death was publicly announced.

John U. Bacon John U. Bacon is an American journalist and author of books on sports and business as well as a sports commentator on TV and radio. Background After graduating from Huron High School, Bacon earned a bachelor's degree in History and a master's de ...

, who coauthored Saunders's autobiography, stated in the book that the coroner found that Saunders died from a combination of an enlarged heart, complications from his diabetes, and

dysautonomia Dysautonomia or autonomic dysfunction is a condition in which the autonomic nervous system (ANS) does not work properly. This may affect the functioning of the heart, bladder, intestines, sweat glands, pupils, and blood vessels. Dysautonomia ...

, which affects the nervous system which regulates breathing, blood pressure and heart rate. Saunders's brain was donated to

Mount Sinai School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...

for research as requested. He was included in the "in memoriam" segment at the

2017 ESPY Awards The 2017 ESPY Awards were presented at the 25th annual ESPY Awards show, held on July 12, 2017 at 5 pm Pacific at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California and on television nationwide in the United States on ABC at 8 pm Eastern/ ...

References

External links

John Saunders' ESPN Bio
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, John 1955 births 2016 deaths Black Canadian broadcasters Black Canadian ice hockey players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Canadian male journalists Canadian television sportscasters College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Hockey League broadcasters People from Ajax, Ontario Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Sportspeople from Toronto Women's National Basketball Association announcers NBA G League broadcasters Toronto Raptors announcers Western Michigan Broncos men's ice hockey players Wide World of Sports (American TV series) People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York