Saturday, February 24, 8:30am The Herg
Learning that began within the walls of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and continued to a career that was launched in Syracuse, Mike Tirico defines greatness in broadcasting.
Tirico, who graduated from Newhouse in 1988, had already been working professionally in Syracuse when he donned his cap and gown. Mike was the sports director at WTVH-TV also served as the play-by-play voice for Syracuse University basketball, football, lacrosse and volleyball.
From 1987 to 1991 Tirico worked in Syracuse, telling the story of the Orange and the robust local sports scene. In ’91, Tirico made the jump to ESPN where he began serving as a SportsCenter anchor and later as host of Monday Night Countdown. ESPN was solidifying its role as the center of the sports universe and Tirico was part of the foundation.
In his time at ESPN, Tirico anchored ESPN’s college football studio show, was a golf host for ABC Sports and called NBA games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN radio. Mike hosted SportsCenter coverage of the U.S. Open, the Masters and the Daytona 500 and anchored coverage of the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, and NFL Draft for both television and radio.
After 25 years at ESPN/ABC (1991-2016), Tirico made the move to NBC, where he began to lead events including Monday Night Football, The Open, The Masters, NBA, college football, college basketball, the FIFA World Cup, and NBC’s coverage of tennis with the U.S. Open and Wimbledon.
In 2017 Tirico was not slowing down as he was named the full-time lead play-by-play voice of NBC Sports’ Notre Dame Football coverage in August. That spring Tirico made he debut as the host of NBC’s Triple Crown horse racing for the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. In that same year, Tirico became NBC’s play-by-play voice for Thursday Night Football. Tirico is one of only four announcers to work primetime NFL games for at least 10 seasons.
In 2018, Tirico was named studio host for Football Night in America, the show that leads into Sunday Night Football. He then went on to host NBC Sports’ inaugural coverage of the Indianapolis 500. Earlier in that same month he called play-by-play for his first-ever NHL game. Though he had previously hosted the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, 2019 NHL Winter Classic and 2019 NHL All-Star Game this was his first time on the game call. In 2022, Tirico not only hosted his third Olympics for NBC , he also hosted the Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show from SoFi Stadium.
In 2022 Tirico won an Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality – Studio Host. This award came after a year in which he anchored the Tokyo Olympics in primetime, the Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show, Football Night in America, horse racing’s Triple Crown, golf’s U.S. Open and the Indianapolis 500.
Mike Tirico has truly done it all, and you can learn from him on Saturday, February 24 as he shares how he took his years inside the walls of Newhouse and created an outstanding career.
The event is ticketed. Tickets will be available in the Newhouse Sports Media Center, starting Monday, February 19. The Newhouse Sports Media Center is open for tickets from 10 to 4 daily, one ticket per SUID, you will be required to pick up your own ticket and provide your email address, no holds or reservations. For accommodations, please contact Mylinda Smith, msmith@syr.edu.