ESPNU Celebrates its 10th Anniversary Today
Special SportsCenterU Featuring Former Anchors Mike Hall, Lowell Galindo, and Dari Nowkhah Tonight
ESPNU celebrates its 10th anniversary today with a special SportsCenterU at 6 p.m. ET. Former anchors Mike Hall (2005-2007, winner of ESPN's Dream Job and the original anchor on the network), Lowell Galindo (2007-2011) and Dari Nowkhah (2011-2014) will all appear on the telecast. Current anchor, Matt Schick, will lead the show.
Galindo now serves as an anchor on ESPN's Longhorn Network and Nowkhah at ESPN's SEC Network. Hall, who currently anchors on the Big Ten Network, will be making his return to ESPN for the night.
"I'm incredibly excited to be involved in the 10-year anniversary show," said Hall. "I'm honored that ESPNU asked me back and happy that my Big Ten Network bosses were game. I'm also interested in seeing the old clips of our first couple years - to see how many truly 'topical 2005 references' were made. Get ready, Napoleon Dynamite fans!"
ESPNU launched with a special ESPNU College GameDay from Stillwater, Okla., on March 4, 2005. Fast forward to 2015, ESPN's dedicated network to college sports is available in more than 73 million homes, is the established home for NCAA Championships, offers year-round insight on basketball and football recruiting, and features numerous franchise shows on a weekly basis.
"Reflecting back, and with the understanding college sports was always at the heart of what we do as a company, the launch of an all-college sports network was a natural evolution to maximize our opportunities," said Burke Magnus, who served as vice president and general manager of ESPNU at launched and is now senior vice president, programming acquisitions.
Moments in ESPNU's History:
· Video: First minutes ever on the air
· Video: ESPNU: Last 10 Years
· Photos: Early days of ESPNU
· Releases:
· March 3, 2005: ESPNU to Launch Friday
· April 11, 2005: ESPNU to Televise Jordan Classic
· June 9, 2005: ESPNU's First 100 days
· June 16, 2005: College Football's National TV Schedule to Begin on ESPNU August 25
ESPNU First Facts
· First Anchor: Mike Hall
· First Show: ESPNU College GameDay
· First Game: Ohio Valley Conference Semifinal: Southeast Missouri vs. Eastern Kentucky (March 5, 2005)
· First Baseball Game: Texas at Nebraska (April 8, 2005)
· First Softball Game: Oregon State at Arizona (April 8, 2005)
· First High School Football Game: Nease (Fla.) vs. Hoover (Ala.) (August 27, 2005)
· First Division I-A, Regular Season, College Football Game: Vanderbilt at Wake Forest (September 1, 2005)
· First 100 Days on Air: 154 games (March 4, 2005 - June 11, 2005)
· 49 basketball
· 47 baseball
· 16 lacrosse
· 15 softball
· 12 ice hockey
· 6 spring football
· 4 water polo
· 2 volleyball
· 2 wrestling
· 1 track and field
Did You Know, ESPNU... .
· Was ESPN's fifth network (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, and ESPNEWS)
· Is based out of Charlotte, N.C, also the home to ESPN Events and SEC Network
· First introduced some of ESPN's most recognizable talents such as Tom Luginbill, Danny Kanell, Todd McShay and David Pollack
· Produced more than 2800 live hours of programming and televised more than 700 live events in 2014
· Featured Dick Vitale as the first guest, joining ESPNU College GameDay remotely
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