Mark Neely is an American
sportscaster. He currently serves as a
play-by-play
In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
announcer for ''
ESPN College Football
''ESPN College Football'' is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football across ESPN properties, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN+, ABC, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPNews and ESPN Radio. ''ESPN College ...
'', ''
College Basketball on ESPN
''ESPN College Basketball'' is a blanket title used for presentations of college basketball on ESPN and its family of networks. Its coverage focuses primarily on competition in NCAA Division I, holding broadcast rights to games from each major c ...
'' and ''
NBA on ESPN
The ''NBA on ESPN'' is the branding used for the presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPN cable network first televised NBA games from 1982 until 1984, and has been airing games curren ...
'' and was previously a television announcer for
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...
baseball.
Biography
Education
Neely attended the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...
and the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
graduating from KU.
Early career
Neely served as a radio and television play-by-play voice for a number of
Minor League teams, including the
Boise Hawks
The Boise Hawks are an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) but is an MLB Partner League. Home games are played at Memorial Stadium in Garden City, Idaho, a small city surround ...
,
Springfield (IL) Cardinals
Springfield may refer to:
* Springfield (toponym), the place name in general
Places and locations Australia
* Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast)
* Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council)
* Springfield, Queenslan ...
,
Salem Avalanche
Salem may refer to: Places
Canada
Ontario
* Bruce County
** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie
** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce
* Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, part ...
,
Louisville Redbirds
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
, and
Tulsa Drillers
The Tulsa Drillers are a minor league baseball team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers major-league club.
Stadium
The Drillers play at ONEOK Field (pronounc ...
.
[ ]
ESPN
Neely's first network television assignment came for
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 ...
TV calling
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
in 2001. He added other sports for the network including college football and college basketball while also calling NCAA Regionals and NCAA Super Regionals in college baseball and softball. In 2006 and 2007, Neely was the play-by-play announcer for the NCAA Men's & Women's Swimming & Diving National Championships.
Neely has also called a number of college football bowl games for
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 ...
-
2010 New Orleans Bowl
The 2010 New Orleans Bowl was the tenth edition of the New Orleans Bowl. The game was played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday, December 18, 2010, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. The contest was televised live on ESPN. The ...
,
2012 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
The 2012 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, the 16th edition of the game, was a post-season American college football bowl game that was held on December 26, 2012 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan as part of the 2012–13 NCAA football bowl season.
Th ...
,
2014 New Mexico Bowl
The 2014 New Mexico Bowl was a college football bowl game that was played on December 20, 2014 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The ninth annual New Mexico Bowl, it pitted the Utah State Aggies of the Mountain West Conference agai ...
,
2014 Quick Lane Bowl
The 2014 Quick Lane Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the North Carolina Tar Heels played on December 26, 2014, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. It was the first edition of the Quick La ...
,
2015 Celebration Bowl
The 2015 Celebration Bowl (officially known as the 2015 Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl) was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 19, 2015 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. The inaugural Celebration Bowl ...
, and the
2015 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
The 2015 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl was a college football bowl game that was played on December 22, 2015 at Albertsons Stadium on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. It was one of the 2015–16 bowl games that concluded the 2015 ...
on ESPN TV - and the
2010 Chick-fil-A Bowl
The 2010 Chick-fil-A Bowl was a college football bowl game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 31, 2010, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. EST. With sponsorship from Chick-fil-A, it was the 43rd edition of the game known thro ...
, 2011 &
2012 New Mexico Bowl
The 2012 Gildan New Mexico Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game that was held on December 15, 2012, at Dreamstyle Stadium, University Stadium on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerq ...
,
2012 BBVA Compass Bowl,
2012 Alamo Bowl
The 2012 Valero Alamo Bowl, the 20th edition of the game, was a postseason college football bowl game between the Texas Longhorns and the Oregon State Beavers at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, held on December 29, 2012 at 5:45 p.m. ...
,
2013 Armed Forces Bowl
The 2013 Armed Forces Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played on December 30, 2013, at Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. The eleventh edition of the Armed Forces Bow ...
, 2014 &
2016 Liberty Bowl,
2014 Music City Bowl
The 2014 Music City Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on December 30, 2014 at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee. The 17th edition of the Music City Bowl began at approximately 2:00 p.m. CST and was broadcast nationally b ...
, and
2015 Cactus Bowl
The 2015 Cactus Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played on January 2, 2015, at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. It was one of the 2014–15 bowl games that concluded the 2014 FBS football season. The game started at 1 ...
on ESPN Radio.
Big Ten Network
In 2007, Neely was hired by Fox's
Big Ten Network
Big Ten Network (BTN) is an American sports network based in Chicago, Illinois. The channel is dedicated to coverage of collegiate sports sanctioned by the Big Ten Conference, including live and recorded event telecasts, news, analysis programs, ...
to call
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
sports such as
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
and
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
.
ESPN Little League Baseball
Neely has called
Little League Baseball
Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization[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 ...]
since 2001. In 2010-2014 he called the
West Region Western Region or West Region may refer to:
Places
*Al Gharbia, Abu Dhabi, the Western Region
*Western Region, Bahrain
*Western Region, Eastern Cape, South Africa
*Western Region, Ghana
*Western Region (Iceland)
*Western Region, Nepal
*Western Regi ...
and
Northwest Regional Semifinals and Finals for
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 ...
along with
Aaron Boone
Aaron John Boone (born March 9, 1973) is an American baseball manager and former infielder who is the manager of the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for 13 seasons from 1997 through 2009. As a player, ...
. In 2015, Neely broadcast those same regions along with
Dallas Braden
Dallas Lee Braden (born August 13, 1983) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from to as a member of the Oakland Athletics and, wher ...
and in 2016 with
Raul Ibanez.
San Diego Padres
In 2009, Neely replaced
Matt Vasgersian
Matt Vasgersian ( '; born 1967) is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is a play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, as well as a studio host for MLB Network and Major League Baseball on Fox, FOX Sports. In the pa ...
as the lead play-by-play voice for
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...
telecasts on
4SD, while in 2010-11 he was the team's secondary TV announcer behind
Dick Enberg
Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...
.
Personal life
Neely and his wife Christine have a son Trevor, born in 2002. Mark is a native of
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
, and a graduate of
Parkway West High School, the same school that produced fellow broadcasters
Stone Phillips
Stone Stockton Phillips (born December 2, 1954) is an American television reporter and correspondent. He is best known as the former co-anchor of ''Dateline NBC'', a news magazine TV series. He also has worked as a substitute anchor for ''NBC N ...
and
Chip Caray
Harry Christopher "Chip" Caray III (born February 27, 1965) is an American television broadcaster for Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast's coverage of the Atlanta Braves baseball. Chip is also known from his time as a broadcaster for ...
.
See also
*
List of San Diego Padres broadcasters
Broadcasters for the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball team.
Play by Play
*Jerry Gross (1969–1971)
* Frank Sims (1969–1970)
*Jerry Coleman (1972–1979, 1981–2013)
*Ted Leitner (1980–2020)
*Eddie Doucette (1980–1981)
*Rick Monday (1 ...
References
External links
* http://mlb.mlb.com/team/broadcasters.jsp?c_id=sd Padres Broadcasters
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neely, Mark
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American television sports announcers
College basketball announcers in the United States
College football announcers
Softball announcers
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Minor League Baseball broadcasters
College baseball announcers in the United States
People from St. Louis
San Diego Padres announcers
University of Missouri alumni
University of Kansas alumni