Holly Rowe (born June 16, 1966) is an American sports telecaster for the

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

sports television network, as a sideline reporter for

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

games. Rowe made

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

history on October 22, 2021 as the team's first female commentator in a game against the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

Early life and career

After graduating in 1984 from Woods Cross High School in Woods Cross, Utah, Rowe attended

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

. At BYU, she was the news anchor for the campus TV station, KBYU-TV. Rowe attended BYU for two years and then transferred to the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

. While attending The U, she worked as a sportswriter for the university's Daily Utah Chronicle and the Davis County Clipper. Rowe graduated in 1991 with a degree in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

. Rowe then went on to an internship at

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

and afterwards landed her first broadcasting role with the Blue and White Sports Network as an affiliate relations coordinator.

Broadcasting career

ESPN

Rowe has been with

in some capacity since 1995. Before becoming a full-time college football sideline reporter with ESPN in August 1998, she served as a part-time sideline reporter with

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial America ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

and

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, and then for certain ESPN broadcasts during the

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

season. She has been a part of numerous regular season games and post-season bowl games. With ESPN, Rowe has worked women's

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

games and women's college

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, generally in a play-by-play capacity (as opposed to her college football sideline duties). Other broadcasts that Rowe has been a part of during her time at ESPN include play-by-play for Women's

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

matches, coverage of the

Running of the Bulls A running of the bulls (, from the verb ''encerrar'', 'to corral, to enclose'; , literally 'haste, momentum'; 'bulls in the street', or 'bull-runner') is an event that involves running in front of a small group of bulls, typically six Fiske ...

, coverage of

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

, and broadcasts of track and field events. Being a woman in the sports broadcasting industry, Rowe has been profiled by other media and news organizations. She is the lead sideline reporter for ESPN's coverage of Saturday-night college football (including the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...

), women's college basketball (including the

NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Div ...

), the WNBA and

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, the

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States and is held annually in Oklahoma City, OK. The event is held at Devon Park (stadium), Devon Park loca ...

and NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament, and also works on men's college basketball and

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Other work

Before and during her time with ESPN, Rowe has worked with several other broadcast organizations, as a broadcaster for women's college basketball games broadcast for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

starting in 1993. Rowe also worked as an analyst for the now-defunct WNBA’s

Utah Starzz The Utah Starzz were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Salt Lake City. They began play in the 1997 WNBA season as one of the league's eight original teams. History One of the eight original WNBA teams, the Starzz ...

. Whilst working for the Blue & White Sports Network in

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

, Rowe covered several

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC) sporting events. She also held a position on the team at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, which produces the men's

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

. Rowe joined the

broadcast team in 2021 as an analyst.

References

External links

*
Rowe ESPN bio''Daily Oklahoman'' article on RoweVideos of Holly Rowe while broadcasting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, Holly 1966 births Living people American television sports announcers Arena football announcers ArenaBowl broadcasters College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers ESPN people NFL announcers Softball announcers Sports Emmy Award winners University of Utah alumni Volleyball commentators American women sports commentators Women's college basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association announcers American women sportswriters Sportswriters from Utah