Elizabeth Mowins (born May 26, 1967) is an American

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 and sports journalist 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%). Th ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, and Marquee Sports Network. She typically calls women's college sports, and became the second woman to call nationally televised college football games for ESPN in 2005. She began doing play-by-play for NFL games in 2017 and became the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game. In 2021, she became the first woman to call play-by-play for an NBA game on network TV.

Early life and education

Mowins was born in Syracuse, New York, having three brothers, and was a basketball, softball and soccer player at North Syracuse High School in North Syracuse, New York. She was captain of the varsity basketball team for two seasons at

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware R ...

. She graduated from Lafayette with a BA in 1989, and from Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a master's degree in broadcast and digital journalism in 1990.

Career

Mowins began her career in 1991 as news and sports director for WXHC-FM Radio in

Homer, New York Homer is a town in Cortland County, New York, United States of America. The population was 6,405 at the 2010 census. The name is from the Greek poet Homer. The town of Homer contains a village called Homer. The town is situated on the west bord ...

, and is one of the 2009 inductees into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame. Mowins joined ESPN in 1994, covering college sports, including basketball, football, softball, soccer and volleyball. She has been the network's lead voice on softball coverage, including the

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

. Mowins was paired with Cat Whitehill on

's tertiary broadcast team for the telecasts of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. In 2015, Mowins became the play-by-play voice for Oakland and later Las Vegas Raiders pre-season TV broadcasts. In May 2017, Mowins was reported by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

''s

Richard Deitsch Richard Deitsch is an American sportswriter. He wrote for ''Sports Illustrated'' from 1997 until 2018. Currently, he writes for the online publication ''The Athletic'' and is a radio host in Toronto. Deitsch graduated with a B.A. in communication ...

to be the chosen play-by-play announcer on ESPN's ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...

'' opening week late broadcast between the

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

and

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

. She did that announcing job in September of that year, and thus became the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game. That also made her only the second female play-by-play announcer in NFL regular season history; Gayle Sierens was a play-by-play announcer for a game of the NFL regular season in 1987 for NBC Sports. Mowins also became the first female play-by-play announcer to call

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

, the NBA, and the NFL for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

in the network's 58-year history when she called the 2017 season's

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 (A ...

– Indianapolis Colts matchup with

Jay Feely Thomas James "Jay" Feely (born May 23, 1976) is a former American football placekicker and current sportscaster. He started his career with the Florida Bobcats in the Arena Football League as a street free agent in 1999 before playing for seve ...

. In February 2021 Mowins was named as a fill-in play-by-play announcer for Chicago Cubs games on Marquee Sports. On May 8, 2021, she became the first woman to call one of the team's regular season games. In 2021, Mowins made her NBC Olympics debut hosting softball for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

Personal life

Mowins is married to Alan Arrollado, and stepmother to his son, Matt.

References

External links

Bio on Women's SportsNetESPNMediaZone bioMowins on 'Cuse Conversations Podcast in 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mowins, Beth 1967 births Living people American soccer commentators American television sports announcers American women's basketball players Chicago Cubs announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Lafayette College alumni Major League Baseball broadcasters National Football League announcers People from Tampa, Florida S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Softball announcers Television personalities from Syracuse, New York Women sports announcers Women's college basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association announcers Women's United Soccer Association commentators 21st-century American women Women sports commentators