Dave Neal, son of Bob Neal and Melody Gadziala, is a two-time

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

winning American sportscaster currently employed by

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%). The ...

. He has 2 sons, Sam and Lil Pete. He is from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

and attended Lakeside High School.

Broadcast career

Dave Neal graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor's degree in communications and then began his career as a sports anchor for

WTXL-TV WTXL-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida, and its transmitter ...

in Tallahassee, Fla. in 1989. In 1993 he moved to

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Ma ...

(FSN), where he later became a reporter for the network’s

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in B ...

and

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

pregame shows. This led to his role as host of The Braves Report from 1994-2002, FSN’s live pregame show for Braves telecasts. He was the network’s pregame host during the Braves run to become

World Series Champions The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) and concludes the MLB postseason. First played in 1903, the World Series championship is a best-of-seven playoff and is a contest between the champions of bas ...

in 1995. At FSN, Neal called play-by-play for the

, and

Charlotte Hornets The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division, and pla ...

telecasts. He also covered numerous special events and programming such as the XII Pan American Games from

Mar Del Plata, Argentina Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a sh ...

. From 1995 to 2009, Neal also covered the SEC for

(FSN) and

Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Gray Television. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom ...

. In addition to taking up play-by-play duties, Neal hosted SEC-TV, a weekly program featuring SEC athletics. His hosting roles also included Raycom Sports coverage of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, as well as Inside the SEC Championships. In 2009, he joined

as a play-by-play commentator and has since served as the prominent voice of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

on ESPN. Neal provided the play by play for the conference’s syndicated Saturday game alongside Heisman Award winner Andre Ware. Neal was on the inaugural roster of

SEC Network The SEC Network is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which hold ...

commentators when it launched in 2014. He currently provides TV and radio play-by-play coverage of SEC Championship football, basketball and baseball. Additionally, he calls college football, basketball, and baseball games on other ESPN networks. His work includes play-by-play for FCS National Championships, numerous post-season bowl games, NIT tournaments and CWS regional and super regional games. Neal can also be heard across the country on the popular weekly syndicated radio show, The SEC Football Report.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neal, Dave College football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College baseball announcers in the United States Women's college basketball announcers in the United States National Basketball Association broadcasters Major League Baseball broadcasters Living people Year of birth missing (living people)