ESPN’s Hannah Storm

Hannah Storm said Oklahoma City Thunder blew it in Game 6 of the NBA finals, and that there was no way they were going to come back in Game 7. Now, we have a rematch between the Cavs and Warriors and Storm believes the Warriors will prevail.

Hannah Storm – a trailblazing and award winning sports and newscaster hosts the weekday edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter, and during the NFL season, hosts the Sunday edition of SportsCenter, leading into ESPN’s NFL coverage. In 2011, she joined the NBA studio team for ESPN. Storm also co-hosted ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Finals, 2009 through 2011 U.S. Open, as well as the Wimbledon Championships. During the 2010 Wimbledon coverage, she called the longest tennis match in history between American John Isner and France’s Nicolas Mahut, 11 hours, 5 minutes spread over 3 days. On Saturdays she hosts “ESPN on ABC”. Also in 2010, Hannah hosted ESPN 3’s “Backstage at the ESPY’s” Special and during the 2011 ESPYs, she served as emcee from the Red Carpet. ESPN has tapped into Storm’s ability to interview high profile personalities including, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Patriot’s owner Robert Kraft, Rex Ryan, Tony Romo, Mike McCarthy the NFL’s Manning family; Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Tim Tebow, David Beckham, Michael Jordan, and Joe Torre. Storm anchored a Gracie Award winning documentary special, entitled, “HERstory.” She has contributed exclusive reports to “E 60,” “Outside the Lines,” and has co-hosted “The Sports Reporters” on ESPN. In addition, Storm is on the Board of Advisors for espnW, the networks new initiative for women’s programming.

 

Stepping outside of sports, Hannah hosted the 120th and 121st “Tournament of Roses Parade” for ABC, along with her co-anchor, Josh Elliott. She also co-hosted ESPN’s Veteran’s Day special coverage form West Point in 2009, from Germany in 2010 and from San Diego in 2011.

 

 In 2008, Storm founded BrainStormin’ Productions. Her first project was a critically acclaimed documentary chronicling the rivalry between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova which she produced for ESPN’s “30 for 30” film series. The movie, “Unmatched” aired in September 2010. “Unmatched” takes nothing away from today’s tennis, while acknowledging that there was never anything quite like Chris and Martina.” New York Times, August 2010.

 

 In 2008, Storm created the Hannah Storm Foundation to raise awareness, fund treatment and provide educational information for children suffering from debilitating and disfiguring vascular birthmarks.

 

Hannah's passion stems from being born with a port wine stain birthmark underneath her left eye. To date, three children from around the world have received surgery funding through the foundation. Past activities held by the foundation include annual Advocacy Day events for families and patients: 2009 Advocacy Day was held at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. and the 2010 Advocacy Day was held at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City; multiple fundraisers including “Mixing It Up” at Stone Rose Lounge in New York city, a celebrity evening in 2010 held at Morton’s in Stamford, CT, and working with the Waner Children’s Vascular Anomaly Foundation to affect CPT codes used by insurance companies.

 

The Hannah Storm Foundation also funds the Hannah Storm Journalism Internship at Notre Dame. It was started in 2006 as an opportunity for current Notre Dame undergraduate students to gain practical experience while working in the Alumni Association's Communications and Marketing department.

 

Storm is the author of two books: "Notre Dame Inspirations," (Doubleday, 2006) and "Go Girl!: Raising Healthy, Confident and Successful Daughters through Sports" (Sourcebooks, 2002; 2011 Re-release). For her work as an author, Literacy Advance of Houston honored her as a Champion of Literacy. Storm has also contributed to a variety of other books and written extensively for several magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Nick Jr., Family Circle, Child and Notre Dame Magazine.

 

 Storm has also appeared in feature films “Like Mike” and “Valentines Day”, in addition to television series “ArliXXrdquo;, “Scrubs” and “As the World Turns”. Hannah is the voice for the Hoover Vacuum Campaign and has done product endorsements for Vizio.

 

Storm comes to ESPN from CBS News after five years (2002 – 2007) as a host of “The Early Show,” covering numerous major news events, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Super Bowls XLI and XXXVIII, the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the Presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008 and the London terror bombings. Storm interviewed major newsmakers, including President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Senators John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as many sports and pop culture icons, including Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tiger Woods, Jamie Foxx, Justin Timberlake, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston.

 

 In addition to her duties at “The Early Show,” Storm hosted shows for the award- winning CBS newsmagazine 48 Hours. She also served as co-host of the network’s “CBS Thanksgiving Day Parade” for five years.

 

Prior to CBS News, Storm worked for 10 years (1992 - 2002) at NBC Sports, where she hosted four Olympic Games: the late-night programs from Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996), and the daytime and weekend programs from Sydney (2000) and Salt Lake City (2002). Storm became the first woman in American television history to act as solo host of a broadcast network's sports series when she hosted NBC's Major League Baseball coverage from 1994 to 2000, including three World Series. Storm acted as part-time host and reporter for the "NBA on NBC" for 5 years, before becoming the show's full- time host from 1997 to 2002. Storm also anchored NBC Sports coverage of Wimbledon, Notre Dame football, NBC SportsDesk, Women's US Open and various college bowl games. Storm also made history as the first play-by play announcer for the WNBA in 1997. 

 

 Storm's national television experience began as the first female host of CNN Sports Tonight from 1989 - 1992. She also hosted Major League Baseball Preview and reported from spring training, the playoffs, and Daytona 500. In addition, Storm hosted the Goodwill Games for TBS in 1990.

 

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame with degrees in communications and political science, Storm began her career while still in school, working at WNDU-TV, the Notre Dame-owned NBC affiliate in South Bend, Indiana. After graduation, she took a job as a disc jockey at KNCN-FM in Corpus Christi, Texas. Six months later, she landed at Houston’s KSRR-FM as their drive-time sport anchor.

 

During her four-year tenure in Houston, Storm hosted the Rockets and Astros pre-and post-game shows on KTXH-TV. From 1988 – 1989, she was a sports anchor and reporter for WPQC-TV Charlotte, N.C where she also hosted NASCAR specials.

 

Storm was the recipient of a 2011 Gracie Award for Outstanding Producer-News/Non-fiction for her work on "Unmatched." In 2005, Storm received the American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Award for Outstanding Anchor for News. In 2000, Storm won her first Gracie Award for her pioneering work as a female in the world of sports broadcasting. In 2007, Storm received The Paley Center for Media’s highest honor when she was named as a member of the “She Made It, Women Creating Television and Radio” Hall-of -Fame. Storm has also received The University of Notre Dame’ s Distinguished Alumni Award, the March of Dimes Sports Legends Award, the Kim Perrot Courage Award, the YWCA Brava Award and the Traditional Home Classic Woman Award.

 

Storm is the mother of three daughters with her husband, Dan Hicks. She considers her children her greatest accomplishment.