Rob Stone is a sports commentator for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

, covering various sports including

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

(MLS),

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 ...

and NFL football, and the

Professional Bowlers Association The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the PBA membership consists of over 3,000 members worldwide. Member ...

(PBA). Stone previously covered sports 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 ...

. A WWE fan, Stone briefly won the

WWE 24/7 Championship The WWE 24/7 Championship was a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It was a tertiary championship open to anyone—regardless of gender or WWE employment status—and carried the special ru ...

during a Fox promotional event, becoming the first non-WWE Superstar to win the championship.

Early life and career

A native of

Simsbury, Connecticut Simsbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 24,517 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town was incorporated as Connecticut's 21st town in May 1670. History ...

, Stone graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

from

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theolog ...

in 1991. He was a four-year letterman on the Raiders men's soccer team who completed his collegiate career as the university's all-time assist leader with 15 (currently tied for second). In his senior year, he was co-captain, the Raiders' Most Valuable Player and First Team All-

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective g ...

in the conference's inaugural season. He was a member of

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more t ...

. Stone originally hired on at ESPN in 1992 as a production assistant, working on

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 o ...

and other shows. The following year, Stone went to

WFXL WFXL, virtual channel 31 ( VHF digital channel 12), is a Fox- affiliated television station licensed to Albany, Georgia, United States, and serving Southwestern Georgia. The station is owned by the Hunt Valley, Maryland–based Sinclair Broadca ...

-TV in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the seat of Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia m ...

; he worked there two years as a sports anchor and later as sports director. In 1995, he went to WTOG in

Tampa, Florida 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 ...

, as a weekend sports anchor and sports reporter, primarily covering stories on the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

. He has also worked as an analyst for the Tampa Bay Mutiny soccer team for SportsChannel Florida.

ESPN

Stone returned to ESPN in the summer of 1997. He worked on select ESPN College Football and college basketball telecasts. He also worked on ESPN's

coverage and '' MLS Primetime Thursday'', as well as their coverage of the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

. Stone was also one of the commentators for the 2006 World Series of Darts. In 2007, he became a regular contributor to big horse racing events. He covered the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-yea ...

, the Preakness, the

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nickname ...

, the

Irish Derby The Irish Derby ( Irish: Dearbaí na hÉireann) is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of ...

, the

Breeders Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, ...

and other key horse racing events. Stone left the telecasts after the Breeders Cup. On June 30, 2008, he appeared as a guest host on ESPN's ''

Around the Horn ''Around the Horn'' (''ATH'') is an American sports roundtable discussion show, conducted in the style of a panel game, produced by ESPN. The show premiered on November 4, 2002, as a replacement for ''Unscripted with Chris Connelly'', and has ...

''. He substituted for

Tony Reali Tony Reali (born July 4, 1978) is an American sports personality and television host of '' Around the Horn'' on ESPN. He served as the statistician on '' Pardon the Interruption'' from the show's debut in 2001 until late 2014. In April 2014, it ...

as the host of the show while Reali was getting married. Stone was also one of the network's main college football sideline reporters.

PBA Bowling

Stone replaced Dave Ryan as the lead play-by-play announcer for PBA bowling telecasts on ESPN prior to the 2007–08 Denny's

PBA Tour The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Regional profess ...

. He would continue in this position on PBA telecasts through the end of 2011, after which he left voluntarily to take a position with

. He was replaced on the remaining (unrecorded) events for the 2011–12 season by veteran announcer

Gary Thorne Gary F. Thorne (born June 9, 1948) is an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles games on MASN from 2007 to 2020. He has also worked for ESPN and ABC, including National Hockey League, Major Leagu ...

"HAMBONE!"

Stone originated the catchphrase "hambone!", which he took to shouting when any bowler rolled four strikes in a row in a game. (It was unknown to Stone that in some bowling circles, including USBC youth leagues, an actual hambone is two consecutive strikes rather than four.) According to an interview with Stone on PBA.com, the phrase started out as a fad when he casually asked color commentator Randy Pedersen on the air, "if three strikes is a 'turkey', why isn't there a name for four strikes?" Stone launched the hambone phrase in the following week's TV finals, and it soon took on a life all its own despite criticism from traditionalists, some media and (at first) even a few bowlers on the PBA tour. In the 2007 ''CLR Windy City Classic'' title match between Brad Angelo and Robert Smith, Stone said to his fellow commentator Randy Pedersen, "I think I'm going to call four strikes in a row a hambone. I think I'm going to force it on bowling." The eventual winner Smith would bowl Stone's first hambone called on-air. Though many bowlers were slow to embrace the catchphrase, it has become extremely popular with PBA management, and even more so with bowling fans who now bring "hambone" placards to flash on camera whenever someone rolls four straight strikes. In a February 17, 2008, match, Hall of Fame bowler Pete Weber, after rolling a fourth consecutive strike, pointed to Stone in the TV booth and shouted over the cheers, "Rob Stone, here's your hambone!" while performing his trademark chop. Even PBA's official bowling app, PBA Challenge, refers to four strikes as a hambone during game play.

Fox Sports

In January 2012, Stone left ESPN to take the position of lead studio host for Fox soccer broadcasts. He went on to host all soccer programs and events for Fox Sports Media Group (FSMG) stations, which include Fox Sports and FX. He later became studio host for Fox college football and basketball broadcasts, as well as a substitute host for Fox's coverage of Major League Baseball. In August 2018, the PBA announced that Stone would return to covering professional bowling events when TV coverage moved from ESPN to Fox Sports for the 2019 season. On August 23, 2019, Stone briefly became the WWE 24/7 Champion, pinning

R-Truth Ronnie Aaron Killings (born January 19, 1972) is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE, performing on the Raw brand under the ring name R-Truth. Killings worked for World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now ...

on the set of the

Fox College Football ''Fox College Football'' (or ''Fox CFB'' for short) is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football games produced by Fox Sports, and broadcast primarily by Fox, FS1, and FS2. Initial college football broadcasts ...

pregame show, only to lose it to

Elias Elias is the Greek equivalent of Elijah ( he, אֵלִיָּהוּ‎ ''ʾĒlīyyāhū''; Syriac: ܐܠܝܐ ''Eliyā''; Arabic: الیاس Ilyās/Elyās), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several h ...

seconds later. He became the first non-WWE performer to win a title.

Stone-isms

* "The American" (proudly stamping reminders to all soccer viewers, listeners, players and future players, our stars are bright, though he would also refer to Scottish soccer player

Robert Snodgrass Robert Snodgrass (born 7 September 1987) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Heart of Midlothian. Snodgrass started his senior career with Livingston. He also had a loan spell at Stirling Albion before moving to ...

as "The American" when covering Premier League highlights). * "Back on the strike train!" (sometimes said after a bowler rolls a strike following a spare or open frame.) * "Drop and give me ten!" (sometimes when a bowler rolls a strike.) * "Back-to-back jacks!" (when a bowler rolls two strikes in a row) * "Show me those signs ... ity/state" (said after shouting "Hambone!") * "

YAHTZEE Yahtzee is a dice game made by Milton Bradley (a company that has since been acquired and assimilated by Hasbro). It was first marketed under the name of Yahtzee by game entrepreneur Edwin S. Lowe in 1956. The game is a development of earlier ...

!!" or "Drops the nickel!" (5 strikes in a row) * "Crack open the six-pack!" (six strikes in a row) * "Adds the

extra point The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...

to the touchdown." (seven strikes in a row) * "The

Bo Derek Bo Derek (born Mary Cathleen Collins, November 20, 1956) is an American actress and model. Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy '' 10'' (1979). Her first husband John Derek directed her in '' Fantasies''; '' Tarzan, the Ape Man ...

!" (ten strikes in a row; see ''

10 (film) ''10'' is a 1979 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Robert Webber and Bo Derek. It was considered a trendsetting film at the time of its release and became one ...

'') * "Messenger....!!" (a runaway pin about to hit another pin) * "WE'VE GOT BONUS BOWLING!!" (when a bowling match ties and goes to a roll-off) * "its 7 love" (on the first game of 2011 college football season)

Personal life

Stone married

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater ...

news reporter Lynn Carson on September 11, 1999 and they have four children. In 2018, Stone was inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame.

Championships and accomplishments

*Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame **Class of 2018 * WWE **

( 1 time)

References

Notes

# Stone's championship reign is recognized as being won on August 24, 2019, when WWE uploaded the video of the win on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

which took place on the set of the ''

'' pregame show.

Citations

External links

ESPN bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Rob Living people American television sports announcers Association football commentators Bowling broadcasters Colgate University alumni American horse racing announcers College football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States People from Simsbury, Connecticut Colgate Raiders men's soccer players Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Soccer broadcasters Association footballers not categorized by position Celebrities who have won professional wrestling championships WWE 24/7 Champions Association football players not categorized by nationality 1969 births