Dan Patrick (sportscaster)

Daniel Patrick Pugh (born May 15, 1957), known professionally as Dan Patrick, is an American sportscaster, radio personality, and actor.

He hosts The Dan Patrick Show broadcast on radio on Premiere Radio Networks and streaming on Peacock.

He co-hosted NBC's Football Night in America and serves as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated.

He worked at ESPN for 18 years, where he often anchored the weeknight and Sunday 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter.

He is unrelated to his partner Bill Patrick at Sports Center.

Daniel Patrick Pugh was born in Zanesville, Ohio, and was raised in Mason, Ohio, in a family of six children.

He was a basketball player in high school at William Mason High School, where he scored a single-game personal best of 36 points and earned AP Class AA All-Ohio third-team honors.

He graduated in 1974.

He attended Eastern Kentucky University on a basketball scholarship for two years before transferring to the University of Dayton, where he majored in communications.

Patrick is an alumnus of the Eta Hexaton chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity at Dayton.

Before working with ESPN, Patrick was known by his surname, "Dan Pugh", as an on-air personality with the album rock-formatted WVUD and then, WTUE in Dayton, Ohio (1979–1983).

His father Jack worked in the computer science department at UD until he died of cancer in 1981 when Dan was 24.

Patrick was then a sports reporter for CNN (1983–89), where his assignments included the World Series, NBA Finals and Winter Olympics.

Patrick explained in an interview on December 10, 2021, with Zachary Levi that his boss at CNN said to adopt his middle name, Patrick, as his on-air last name.

From 1989–1995, Patrick did a daily sports segment for Bob and Brian, a syndicated Wisconsin-area morning show, and in the early 1990s, he did sports updates for the Columbus, Ohio, Rock Station WLVQ and appeared on the morning show "Wags and Elliot."

Patrick was an anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter (1989–2006).

In the mid-1990s, Dan and Keith Olbermann were among ESPN's most recognizable faces.

Olbermann used the catch phrase "Welcome to the Big Show" when Patrick worked with him on SportsCenter.

After getting reprimanded by their superiors, they began saying "This is SportsCenter" sarcastically, accidentally spawning the show's new catch phrase as well as the name of their long-running promotional campaign.

When Olbermann left, Patrick said, "This isn't the Big Show anymore."

Patrick stated on his radio program that the ABC sitcom Sports Night was a semi-fictional account of the Olbermann/Patrick anchored SportsCenter, with Casey McCall (Peter Krause) representing Patrick.

He also hosted The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio from September 13, 1999, to August 17, 2007.

Starting on March 19, 2006, until the final game of the NBA Finals, he became the host of ABC's then-titled NBA Nation, a pregame show for the network's NBA telecasts.

On July 9, 2007, Patrick on his radio show announced his departure from ESPN/ABC effective August 17, 2007, stating, "I am leaving ESPN August 17 to go out on my own and be a free agent...I think I was starting to take it (ESPN) for granted," Patrick said.

He said ESPN tried to talk him out of it.

If there were any animosity, he says, "I wouldn't be sticking around until August."

Patrick remained off air from ESPN Radio until August 15 for his three farewell shows.

He was originally reported to be returning for a final week, but returned on Wednesday of that week.

ESPN's statement released to the media said Patrick would be released from his contract August 31, 2007, exactly one year early from his deal that was to run until August 31, 2008.

The statement also said this would be the final comment on Patrick's departure from ESPN.

"ESPN contractually bans all employees from making specific announcements of their futures on their airwaves, but out of respect to Dan and all he's done for ESPN we allowed him an opportunity to end the speculation".

Reaction from media sources hit the internet by storm.

Many webpages, blogs, and news media outlets speculated on the reasons for Patrick's departure and his possible future.

On July 10, 2007, The Dan Patrick Show, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick himself put some of the rumors and comments to rest.

Patrick confirmed he was asked by the producers of The Price Is Right to audition for the vacant host position, but he declined.

The job eventually went to Drew Carey.

Patrick admitted he was hurt when good friend, Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly (who would move to ESPN) wrote, "Patrick was making one of the top 5 biggest career mistakes in entertainment history," ranking right under Shelley Long's leaving Cheers and Katie Couric's leaving NBC's Today show for the CBS Evening News.

Keith Olbermann stated it was only a matter of time before a website erroneously reported Patrick was fired from ESPN, which was what happened in some reports when Olbermann left ESPN.

Patrick again stated he was leaving on good terms with ESPN and he could return to ESPN if he should so choose.

Patrick said he wanted to be on both television and radio again, although some newspapers reported he only wanted to do radio.