Michael Voepel

Last updated

Michael Voepel
Born
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationSports journalist
Employer ESPN

Michael Voepel is an American sportswriter. He has reported on women's sports for ESPN since 1996 and has been described by the company as "the foremost authority on women's basketball". [1]

Contents

Biography

Voepel was born in Los Angeles, California, and he grew up in Moscow Mills, Missouri. [2] [3] Voepel studied journalism at the University of Missouri, where he reported on his first women's basketball game and graduated in 1987. Voepel's first job was in Jackson, Tennessee, and he later worked for news outlets in Columbia, Newport News, and Kansas City, [2] including the Columbia Daily Tribune [4] and The Kansas City Star . [5] [6] In 1996, Voepel joined ESPN.com to cover women's basketball, both collegiate and professional, and has since attended multiple collegiate Women's Final Four national semi-finals. Voepel has also covered other college sports and attended the Summer Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games, the FIFA Women's World Cup, and various professional golf tournaments. [2] Voepel received the 2003 Mel Greenberg Media Award, awarded by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, for his writing for The Kansas City Star and ESPN. [7] Since 2008, Voepel has exclusively reported for ESPN.com. [3]

Voepel was honored by the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. [3] [5] In early 2022, Voepel received the Curt Gowdy Media Award for print media from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for contributions to basketball media. [2] Formerly known by the name Mechelle, [8] Voepel came out as transgender on Twitter that August and explained he had begun a gender transition and would begin using the byline M.A. Voepel and masculine personal pronouns. Voepel wrote that winning the Curt Gowdy Media Award earlier that year motivated him to make the announcement, because he wanted to accept the award as his "authentic self" [1] [9] at the award ceremony the following month. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curt Gowdy</span> American sportscaster

Curtis Edward Gowdy was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s. He coined the nickname "The Granddaddy of Them All" for the Rose Bowl Game, taking the moniker from the Cheyenne Frontier Days in his native Wyoming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Breen</span> American sportscaster

Michael Breen is an American play-by-play sports commentator. He has been the lead announcer for NBA games on ABC and ESPN since 2006, including the NBA Finals. He is also the lead announcer for New York Knicks games on the MSG Network. Breen previously called NFL regular season games for both NFL on Fox and NFL on NBC, as well as New York Giants preseason games.

Anthony William Packer was an American college basketball player, sportscaster, and author. Packer spent more than three decades working as a color analyst for television coverage of college basketball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Lawler</span> American sports commentator

Ralph Anthony Lawler is an American former television and radio personality. He is best known for his 41-year tenure as the voice of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers. Going back to the franchise's six-year stint in San Diego (1978–84), Lawler has broadcast virtually every Clippers game since the franchise moved from Buffalo, New York in 1978, whether it be radio and/or television. There were only two seasons when Lawler did not serve as the team's primary play-by-play broadcaster: 1981–82 and 1984–85 ; Lawler returned as the full-time voice in 1985–86. In 2019, Lawler was recognized for his contributions to the game and received the Curt Gowdy Media Award, presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Roberts (newscaster)</span> American television broadcaster (born 1960)

Robin Roberts is an American television broadcaster. Roberts is the anchor of ABC's Good Morning America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Raftery</span> American basketball player-coach and current broadcaster for college basketball

William Joseph Raftery is an American basketball analyst and former college basketball coach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Wolff</span> American sportscaster (1920–2017)

Robert Alfred Wolff was an American radio and television sportscaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Gorman</span> American sportscaster

Michael Thomas Gorman is an American television play-by-play commentator for the Boston Celtics on NBC Sports Boston. Gorman also did play-by-play, alongside Fran Fraschilla, for NBC for basketball games during the 2016 Summer Olympics. Gorman was a recipient of the 2021 Curt Gowdy Award and was inducted into the media wing of the Basketball Hall of Fame as part of a star-studded 2021 class that included one of Gorman's favorite players in Paul Pierce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackie MacMullan</span> American journalist

Jackie "Mac" MacMullan Boyle is a retired American freelance newspaper sportswriter and NBA columnist for the sports website ESPN.com. She retired from ESPN on August 31, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris Burke</span> American sports commentator

Doris Burke is an American sports announcer and analyst for NBA on ESPN, NBA on ABC, College Basketball on ESPN, and College Basketball on ABC games. She formerly worked as an analyst for WNBA games on MSG and has worked on New York Knicks games. Burke was the first female commentator to call a New York Knicks game on radio and television.

Marc Stein is an American sports reporter with a newsletter on Substack covering the National Basketball Association (NBA) nationally. He previously worked for ESPN and The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Sager</span> American sports reporter (1951–2016)

Craig Graham Sager was an American sports reporter who covered an array of sports for CNN and its sister stations TBS and TNT, from 1981 until his death in late 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Sports Media Association</span> American organization of sports media members

The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Greenberg</span> American basketball writer

Mel Greenberg is an American sports journalist focusing on women's basketball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curt Gowdy Media Award</span> Annual award for outstanding basketball writers

The Curt Gowdy Media Award is an annual award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to outstanding basketball writers and broadcasters. It is named for American sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who was the Hall of Fame's president for seven years.

The Mel Greenberg Media Award, named after Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Legend Mel Greenberg, is presented annually by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) to "a member of the media who has best displayed a commitment to women’s basketball and to advancing the role of the media in the women’s game".

Jack McCallum is an American novelist and sportswriter.

Cheryl Elaine Burnett is an American former women's college basketball coach and player. She was the head coach of the Southwest Missouri State women's basketball team from 1987 to 2002. At Southwest Missouri State, she compiled a 319–136 record (.701) and led her teams to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament in 1992 and 2001. She also served as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines women's basketball team from 2003 to 2007, compiling a record of 35–83 (.297). She played college basketball at the University of Kansas from 1976 to 1980.

J.A. Adande is an American sportswriter, commentator and educator, who currently serves as the Director of Sports Journalism at Northwestern University.

Sue Donohoe (1959–2020) was an American basketball coach.

References

  1. 1 2 Mandler, C (August 10, 2022). "Longtime ESPN reporter M.A. Voepel comes out as transgender". CBS News . Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Basketball Hall of Fame reveals recipients for 2022 Curt Gowdy Media Award" (Press release). Cleveland, Ohio: National Basketball Association. February 18, 2022. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Basnett, Chris (April 24, 2014). "Missouri Sports Hall of Fame honors women". Springfield News-Leader . Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Star gets two awards in content". The Kansas City Star . May 7, 1990. p. 3. Retrieved December 4, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 "Missouri Sports Hall of Fame to honor four women". The Kansas City Star . February 12, 2014. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "Mel Greenberg Media Award". Women's Basketball Coaches Association . Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  8. ↑ Bontemps, Tim (February 18, 2022). "ESPN's Voepel, Walt Frazier, Ebersol win Gowdy". Cleveland, Ohio: ESPN . Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  9. ↑ Baska, Maggie (August 11, 2022). "Veteran ESPN reporter bravely comes out as trans". PinkNews . Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  10. ↑ Hallman, Charles (September 22, 2022). "Halls of Fame recognize the best in sport". Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder . Retrieved December 9, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.