John Peterson Saunders (February 2, 1955 – August 10, 2016) was a Canadian-American sports journalist. He 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 ...

and ABC from 1986 until his death in 2016.

Early life and career

Saunders attended high school in

Châteauguay Châteauguay ( , , ) is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, located both on the Chateauguay River and Lac St-Louis, which is a section of the St. Lawrence River. The population of the city of Châteauguay at the 2021 Cen ...

. Saunders was an all-star defenseman in the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

junior leagues, received a scholarship and played

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

from 1974 to 1976 with his brother, Bernie. He transferred to

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, although it also operates facilities elsewhere in Tor ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and played for the Rams from 1976 to 1978. After the 1977–78 season, Saunders was named to the Ontario University Athletic Association All-Star team. He was the news director for CKNS Radio (

Espanola, Ontario Espanola (2016 census population 4,996) is a town in Northern Ontario, Canada, in the Sudbury District. It is situated on the Spanish River, approximately 70 kilometres west of downtown Sudbury, and just south of the junction of Highway 6 and Hi ...

, 1978), and sports anchor at

CKNY-TV CKNY-DT (channel 10) is a television station in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station maintains a transmitter adjacent to Ski Hill Road (southwest of Highway ...

(

North Bay, Ontario North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing. North Bay developed as a railroad centre, and its airport was an important military ...

, 1978–1979) and at ATV News (

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, 1979–1980). He also served as the main sports anchor for

CITY-TV CITY-DT (channel 57) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media alongside Omni Television outlets CFMT-DT (chan ...

(Toronto, 1980–1982). He then moved to the United States to work as a sports anchor at

WMAR-TV WMAR-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios and offices are located on York Road ( ...

(

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, 1982–1986).

Career at ESPN and ABC Sports

Saunders joined ESPN in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

and was the host of ESPN's ''

The Sports Reporters ''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on ESPN2 and 11:30 AM on ESPNews). It featured a roundtable discussion among four spor ...

'', starting with the illness and subsequent death of

Dick Schaap Richard Jay Schaap (September 27, 1934 – December 21, 2001) was an American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author. Early life and education Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and raised in Freeport, New York, on Long Island, Schaap began wri ...

in September 2001. He previously co-hosted ''

NFL Primetime ''NFL Primetime'' is a sports television program that has aired on ESPN since 1987. The show is presented similarly to ESPN's own '' SportsCenter'', featuring scores, highlights, and analysis of every game of the week in the NFL. When it debut ...

'' from 1987 to 1989. He was also the secondary studio host for the network's NHL broadcasts from 1986–87 to

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

, filling-in for lead host

Tom Mees Thomas E. Mees (October 13, 1949 – August 14, 1996) was an American sportscaster best known for his role in hosting professional and collegiate ice hockey and for being a prominent personality on ESPN during that network's early years. Early ...

when needed. He became the lead studio host from

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

until 2004 and

NHL on ABC The ''NHL on ABC'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports), and televised on ABC in the United States. The network first broadcast NHL games during the 1993 Sta ...

from 1992 to 1994 and again from 2000 to 2004 and hosted

College Football on ABC ''ESPN College Football on ABC'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football games that are produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC in the Uni ...

from 1992 to 2015. He has also hosted ABC's coverage of baseball under the ''

Baseball Night in America ''Baseball Night in America'' is an American television presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports for the Fox network. Fox's coverage includes 17 weeks worth of coverage as of 2022. Coverage usually includes 2 to 4 ...

'' banner and was involved in ESPN's coverage earlier in his career. He also anchored the

1995 World Series The 1995 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1995 season. The 91st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Atlanta Braves and the Ameri ...

for ABC. Saunders' memoir, '' Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope'', which spans his three-decade career at ESPN and ABC, was published posthumously in 2017.

NBA

From 2002 to 2004, and occasionally during the 2007 season, Saunders did play-by-play for ESPN's coverage of the NBA, mostly on Sunday nights. He was the studio host of ESPN's ''NBA Shootaround'' from 2004 to 2006. Saunders also served as a back-up play-by-play man for ''

NBA on ABC The ''NBA on ABC'' is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC. After the ABC Sports division was integrated with its cable sister network in September 2006, broadcasts have s ...

''. He called most of the Team U.S.A. games on ESPN for the

2007 FIBA Americas Championship The 2007 FIBA Americas Championships later known as the FIBA AmeriCup (or The Tournament of the Americas), was a basketball tournament held at Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, from August 22, to September 2. It was the thirteenth staging of th ...

''SportsCenter''

In 2008, he began hosting the 7pm ET Sunday '' SportsCenter'' during the NFL season with

Chris Berman Christopher James Berman (born May 10, 1955), nicknamed "Boomer", is an American sportscaster. He has been an anchor for ''SportsCenter'' on ESPN since 1979, joining a month after its initial launch, and hosted the network's '' Sunday NFL Count ...

and analyst Tom Jackson.

Toronto Raptors

He was the television play-by-play announcer for the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

from 1995 to 2001, eventually being replaced by Chuck Swirsky.

Personal life

John was an advocate for juvenile diabetes research, having been diagnosed with

Type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar ...

as an adult in the early 1980s after his then-girlfriend dragged him to the hospital to get tested. He was also a founding board member of the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research, a charity that has raised $200 million with 100% of the proceeds funding cancer research. Saunders lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, with his wife and children. He was the brother of former

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player Bernie Saunders.

Death

On August 10, 2016, Saunders's wife discovered him not breathing in their New York home. Emergency responders rushed to the scene, but around 4 a.m., he was pronounced dead. He was 61 years of age. Foul play was ruled out by authorities. Family members stated Saunders had not been feeling well in the days leading up to his death but no specific cause of death was publicly announced. John U. Bacon, who coauthored Saunders's autobiography, stated in the book that the coroner found that Saunders died from a combination of an enlarged heart, complications from his diabetes, and

dysautonomia Dysautonomia or autonomic dysfunction is a condition in which the autonomic nervous system (ANS) does not work properly. This may affect the functioning of the heart, bladder, intestines, sweat glands, pupils, and blood vessels. Dysautonomia ha ...

, which affects the nervous system which regulates breathing, blood pressure and heart rate. Saunders's brain was donated to Mount Sinai School of Medicine for research as requested. He was included in the "in memoriam" segment at the 2017 ESPY Awards.

References

External links

John Saunders' ESPN Bio
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, John 1955 births 2016 deaths Black Canadian broadcasters Black Canadian ice hockey players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Canadian male journalists Canadian television sportscasters College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Hockey League broadcasters People from Ajax, Ontario Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Sportspeople from Toronto Women's National Basketball Association announcers NBA G League broadcasters Toronto Raptors announcers Western Michigan Broncos men's ice hockey players Wide World of Sports (American TV series) People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York