ESPN Broadcaster Sean McDonough ’84 Returns to Newhouse to Address Students.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Sean McDonough ’84 will speak to students at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications on Friday, Nov. 22, about his distinguished career in sports broadcasting. 

The Newhouse Sports Media Center will host the event in Room 102 of Newhouse 1 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

McDonough graduated from Newhouse in 1984. He will present the Marty Glickman Award for Leadership in Sports Media to his good friend Dan Hoard on Nov. 20. McDonough became the fourth recipient of the Glickman Award in 2016. 

McDonough also received the George Arents Award in 2019 for his excellence in sports broadcasting. The Arents Award is the highest alumni honor bestowed by Syracuse University. In 2021, McDonough, who grew up in the Boston area, was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. 

McDonough began his sports broadcasting career as a student at WAER, a noncommercial radio station on Syracuse University’s campus and part of the Newhouse School. In 2014, he was inducted into the WAER Hall of Fame. McDonough was the radio voice of the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs baseball team from 1982 to 1984. 

Throughout his career, McDonough has called multiple sports. He called Major League Baseball games for the Boston Red Sox on television from 1988 to 2004. He was honored with the New England Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Play-by-Play four times. In 2019, McDonough joined the Red Sox again, becoming one of the team’s radio broadcasters. He was the lead baseball announcer for CBS from 1992 to 1993. 

In April 2022, Sean McDonough spoke to the crowd at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts about his time working with Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy. Photo credit: The Spun

McDonough has been with ESPN for over 30 years and spent a decade with CBS. He is a lead play-by-play announcer for ESPN college football and basketball games. For college football, he calls one of the College Football Playoff Semifinal games and the National Championship on ESPN Radio. 

McDonough has covered the PGA Championship, the annual Par 3 Contest at The Masters, the World Series, the College World Series, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA Final Four, the Olympic Games, U.S. Open Tennis, and Monday Night Football. 

In 2021, he became the lead play-by-play announcer for the NHL on ESPN and ABC. He calls games during the regular season and postseason, including the Stanley Cup Final. 

During the college basketball season, McDonough calls ACC Big Monday games. He used to call Big Monday Big East games for ESPN and worked with Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery. Their work included a memorable 2009 game many Syracuse basketball fans remember. Then 18th-ranked Syracuse defeated No. 3 UConn in six overtimes in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City.