Victor Pete Thamel (born 1977) is an American sports reporter for

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 ...

. He previously worked for

Yahoo Sports Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from Stats Perform. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. ...

, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'', and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.

Early life

Thamel was born in

Ware, Massachusetts Ware is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,066 as of 2020 United States census, 2020. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield metropo ...

to Peter V. Thamel. He was the sports editor at the high school paper. Thamel graduated from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1999, where he majored in magazine. He began his sportswriting career during college at Syracuse, he served as sports editor of '' The Daily Orange'' for three years. During his time at Syracuse,

Donovan McNabb Donovan Jamal McNabb (born November 25, 1976) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college ...

was the Orange's quarterback, and

Jim Boeheim James Arthur Boeheim Jr. ( ; born November 17, 1944) is an American former college basketball coach and current Special Assistant to the Athletic Director at Syracuse University. From 1976 until 2023, he was the head coach of the Syracuse Orange ...

's men's basketball team reached the national championship game in

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 ...

Career

After graduation, Thamel began covering college basketball for ''

The Post-Standard ''The Post-Standard'' is a newspaper serving the greater Syracuse, New York, metro area. Published by Advance Publications, it and sister website Syracuse.com are among the consumer brands of Advance Media New York, alongside NYUp.com and ''Th ...

'' in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

. Thamel joined ''

'' in 2003 and spent nine years there as the national college sports reporter. In 2006, ''The New York Times'' nominated him for a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. He left ''the Times'' in 2012 for ''

'' as a senior writer, covering college football and basketball. Thamel joined

in 2017 and covered college sports and the NFL. He was hired by

in 2022. Thamel is a member of the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

and has won numerous FWAA writing awards. He has also won several Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) awards, including first place for beat reporting in 2017 and breaking news in 2011. He considers Peter King at ''

'' and Joe Drape from ''The New York Times'' his biggest mentors.

Personal life

Thamel lives in

South Boston South Boston (colloquially known as Southie) is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay (Boston Harbor), Dorchester Bay. It has under ...

. He got married in March 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thamel, Pete 1977 births Living people American reporters and correspondents American sports journalists ESPN people People from Ware, Massachusetts S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Sports Illustrated people The New York Times journalists Yahoo! employees