Jay Harris (born February 22, 1965 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

who has worked 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 ...

since February 2003. Jay currently calls late night his home, seen primarily on the 11pm and midnight eastern editions of SportsCenter, and sometimes on the west coast Sportscenter from Los Angeles. Jay has hosted a variety of shows during his tenure at ESPN, including Sportscenter, Outside The Lines, NFL Live, Baseball Tonight, Cold Pizza, First Take, Friday Night Fights, and ESPN Sports Saturday on ABC.

Early life

Prior to ESPN, Harris worked for many years at

WPGH-TV WPGH-TV (channel 53) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WPNT (channel 22). Both stations share studios on ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, as a weeknight news anchor. He also has local morning radio news experience at WAMO-FM, and national news experience at American Urban Radio Networks, also in Pittsburgh. He also did local radio news at WOWI-FM in Norfolk, Virginia.

Accolades

Harris has several honors including: a Silver World Medal from the New York Festivals, a ''Robert L. Vann Award'' from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, an ''EXCEL Award'' from the Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals. He was also part of two Emmy Award-winning Sportscenter shows. Harris is a 1983 graduate of Chapel Hill High School in Chapel Hill, NC. A 1987 graduate of

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia w ...

, he received a ''Distinguished Alumni Award'' and served as the keynote speaker for its 100th commencement ceremony in 2003, and 2004, respectively.

Personal life

Harris is married to Stephanie Prigmore with 2 children. He is a member of the Nu Theta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. On the February 22, 2008 episode of '' SportsCenter'',

Bill Walton William Theodore Walton III (born November 5, 1952) is an American television sportscaster and former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for coach John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins, winning three consecutive national ...

presented Harris with a cake, to the surprise of Harris. Walton also noted that Harris shares the same birth date with famed basketball player

Julius Erving Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is an American former professional basketball player. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and he was the best-known player ...

References

*Hewitt, Dr. Clay W. The Glide Journal of Drexel College School of Journalism in Televised Communication Volume 4, July 2007 pp. 113–118

External links

* He also worked for the San Jose Mercury News and he resigned on March 19, 2001 as he did not want to fire employees after pressures from Knight Ridder group. Black List by Kristina Borjesson ed Les Arenes Living people African-American television personalities African-American sports announcers African-American sports journalists American television sports announcers 1965 births American horse racing announcers ESPN people Old Dominion University alumni Sportspeople from Norfolk, Virginia Journalists from Virginia 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 21st-century American journalists {{US-journalist-1960s-stub