Craig Sager

Craig Sager

Sager at the 2009 NLCS
Born Craig Graham Sager
(1951-06-29) June 29, 1951
Batavia, Illinois
Nationality American
Occupation TV sports broadcaster. commentator and announcer for Turner Sports (TNT, TBS)
Years active 1972–present
Height 188 cm (6 ft 2 in)

Craig Graham Sager, Sr. (born June 29, 1951) is an American sideline reporter for TNT and TBS. Sager is a graduate of Northwestern University. He has previously covered sports for CBS and CNN.

Education and early life

Sager graduated from Northwestern University in 1973, earning a bachelor's degree in speech. He is a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.[1]:52 He also served as Willie the Wildcat, the school's mascot.

Broadcasting career

Sager broadcast Royals spring training and Chiefs' preseason games during the 1970s.

Sager began his career in 1972 as a reporter for WXLT (now WWSB-Channel 40) in Sarasota, FL. He was waiting for Hank Aaron at third base and interviewed him on the way to home plate after Aaron hit his 715th home run, breaking the record held by Babe Ruth.[2] Sager can be easily recognized in the fracas at home plate after the home run because of the long white overcoat that he was wearing.

Prior to working for Turner Sports, Sager joined CNN in 1981 after handling the network's first live remote report from the 1980 baseball playoffs. At CNN, Sager was co-anchor of the network's CNN Sports Tonight shows and was honored with a CableAce award in 1985. He also served as the anchor of College Football Scoreboard from 1982 to 1985.

Turner Sports

Sager normally works as a sideline reporter for The NBA on TNT. Previously, he has worked at CNN and TBS for the Goodwill Games, Pan American Games, and 1990 FIFA World Cup. Sager also called Nordic skiing and curling for TNT's coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics.[3]

Sager is in his 20th season as sideline reporter for TNT's exclusive Thursday night NBA doubleheader coverage. Sager also made several appearances on NBA TV during the 2008–09 NBA season.

Sager has done some field reporting for TBS, having worked that network's coverage of the NBA, Goodwill Games, college football, and more recently, Major League Baseball.

He formerly appeared in the NBA 2K video game series along with fellow TNT commentators Kevin Harlan and Kenny Smith. Sager is a sideline reporter who interviews the coaches and reports on the interviews in the games. He is known to be the greatest sideline reporter of his time.

He has also served as a reporter for the network's coverage of golf, tennis and amateur sports. He previously hosted Atlanta Hawks telecasts for TBS Superstation, was a reporter on TNT's NFL pre-game, halftime and post-game from 1990 to 1997. Among his other assignments have been the 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998 Goodwill Games for TBS. In addition, Sager hosted the weekly amateur sports series U.S. Olympic Gold, which aired Saturdays on TNT.

Sager reported from the sideline for TBS' Pac-10/Big 12 college football coverage from 2002 to 2006. He also served as the sideline reporter for the 50th annual Delchamps Senior Bowl from Ladd Memorial Stadium in Mobile, AL, and the 1998 and 2000 Micron PC Bowl, formerly known as the Carquest Bowl.[4]

Sager was a reporter for TNT's coverage of the 2002 World Championships of Basketball, 2000 USA Basketball Games coverage from Hawaii and Japan, as well as the 1999 Tournament of the Americas Olympic Qualifying Basketball Tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Sager served as a sideline reporter for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, both for Turner Sports and CBS with Marv Albert, Chris Webber, and Len Elmore.

NBC Sports

In 1999, he was loaned to NBC Sports where Sager served as a field reporter for both NBC's coverage of the National League Championship Series and World Series.

He has been the men's and women's basketball reporter for NBC's Olympic coverage since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He also has filled in as a sideline reporter on NBC's coverage of Notre Dame football.[5]

Sager served as a reporter for NBC Sports coverage of basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing [6]

ESPN

Sager partnered with Doris Burke of ESPN as sideline reporters for Game 6 of 2016 NBA Finals.

Personal life

Sager and his wife, Stacy, a former NBA Chicago Bulls dancer, have two children, Riley and Ryan. Sager also has three children from a previous marriage, including Craig Jr., a walk-on wide receiver at the University of Georgia. They currently live in Canton, Georgia. Sager was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and missed the entire 2014 NBA Playoffs.[7][8] On April 20, 2014, Sager's son Craig Jr. did the sideline interview with San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich between the 3rd and 4th quarters of the 2014 NBA playoffs 1st round against the Dallas Mavericks to air a special get well message to Sager. The NBA on TNT crew did a special tribute to Sager as well, wearing suits similar to Sager from the past. On the same day during the between quarters interview segments all coaches gave get well messages to Sager.[9] Craig Jr. later helped save Sager's life as he was a match for the bone marrow transplant needed to push Sager into remission.[10] In late March 2016 Sager announced his leukemia had returned.[11] It was also announced that doctors had told him that he had 3–6 months to live without treatment. On July 29, 2016, Craig Sager underwent bone marrow surgery.[12]

Awards and honors

On July 13, 2016, Craig Sager was awarded the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the 2016 ESPY Awards show for battling cancer.[13]

References

  1. ↑ The Rainbow, vol. 132, no. 3,
  2. ↑ Heistand, Michael (March 26, 2013). "Craig Sager's backstory more colorful than his clothes". USA Today. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  3. ↑ The 1992 Winter Olympics (TNT) TV Special – InBaseline
  4. ↑ Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ http://deadspin.com/craig-sager-will-miss-the-olympics-to-undergo-leukemia-1784491360
  7. ↑ "TNT's Sager to miss playoffs with leukemia". NBA. April 18, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Veteran broadcaster, NBA sideline reporter Craig Sager has leukemia, son says". ESPN. April 18, 2014. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  9. ↑ Sager will return to the sidelines of the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Chicago Bulls game after spending a year in treatment on March 5.TNT Crew And Gregg Popovich Pay Tribute To Craig Sager (VIDEO)
  10. ↑ Craig Sager's Harrowing and Emotional Journey Back to the NBA
  11. ↑ SI Wire report (March 29, 2015). "Craig Sager's leukemia has returned". Sports Illustrated.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Craig Sager undergoes bone marrow surgery". July 29, 2016. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Craig Sager to Be Honored With Jimmy V Perseverance Award at 2016 ESPYS". thewrap.com. May 24, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
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