Colin Cowherd facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Colin Cowherd
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Cowherd in 2011
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| Born |
Colin Murray Cowherd
January 6, 1964 Aberdeen, Washington, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Eastern Washington University |
| Spouse(s) |
Kimberly Vadala
(m. 1996; div. 2007)Ann Hamilton-Cowherd
(m. 2010) |
| Children | 2 |
| Career | |
| Show | The Herd with Colin Cowherd |
| Station(s) | Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports 1 |
| Network | Fox |
Colin Murray Cowherd (born January 6, 1964) is an American sports media personality. He talks about sports on radio and TV. He started his career working for TV stations in places like Las Vegas and Tampa, Florida. In 2003, he joined ESPN, a big sports network. There, he hosted a popular radio show called The Herd. He also helped host TV shows like SportsNation. Today, Colin Cowherd hosts The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1.
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Early Life and School
Colin Cowherd was born in Aberdeen, Washington. His dad, Charles, was an eye doctor. His mom, Patricia, came from Britain and was a homemaker. Colin also has an older sister named Marlene. He grew up in a small fishing village called Grayland, Washington. This town is about 130 miles from Seattle.
Colin's parents divorced when he was young. He and his sister were mostly raised by their mom. Colin has said he was a bit of a loner as a kid. He often sat on his roof, listening to baseball games on the radio. He finished high school at Ocosta High School in Westport in 1982. In high school, he played quarterback for the football team. He was also a top player for the basketball team.
Career in Sports Media
Starting Out in Broadcasting
Colin Cowherd began his career calling baseball games. He was the play-by-play voice for the San Diego Padres' minor league team, the Las Vegas Stars. Later, he became the sports director at a TV station in Las Vegas. He was named Nevada's Sportscaster of the Year five times there.
From 1993 to 1995, he worked in Tampa, Florida, as a weekend sports anchor. In 1996, he moved to Portland, Oregon. There, he was a sports anchorman for a local TV station. In 2001, his radio show The Herd moved to the popular morning time slot in Portland.
Time at ESPN
In 2003, Colin Cowherd joined ESPN Radio. He took over a late-morning show. From 2004 to 2015, his show, The Herd, was heard across the United States. It was also available online. In 2008, the show also started being shown on ESPNU, a TV channel.
The Herd featured Colin's thoughts on sports news. He also shared his opinions on other news stories. He interviewed popular sports experts and athletes. Most of his discussions were about the National Football League (NFL), college football, and the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Colin Cowherd sometimes made comments that caused controversy. In 2005, ESPN apologized after he made comments about the death of a professional wrestler. He was later told off by an ESPN manager for his remarks. He also received criticism for comments about another wrestler's death in 2014. In 2018, he even attended a wrestling show after previously making fun of wrestling fans.
In 2007, Colin told his listeners to visit a sports blog all at once. This caused the website to crash for several days. ESPN's boss for listener feedback wrote an article saying this was wrong. ESPN then made a new rule to stop this from happening again.
He also faced criticism for comments he made about the death of football player Sean Taylor. His remarks were seen as insensitive.
In 2013, Colin started hosting a new football talk show on ESPN. It was called Colin's New Football Show. Also in 2013, his first book was published. It was titled You Herd Me! I'll Say It If Nobody Else Will. In 2015, he released his second book, Raw: My 100%, Grade-A, Unfiltered, Inside Look at Sports.
On July 23, 2015, Colin made comments about baseball players from the Dominican Republic. These remarks were seen as offensive. Major League Baseball and the players' union spoke out against his comments. They said his remarks were "inappropriate" and "offensive."
Colin Cowherd was already planning to leave ESPN. But after these comments, ESPN decided to end his contract early. During his final show, he tried to explain his remarks. He apologized, but some people did not accept his apology.
Hosting SportsNation
Colin Cowherd also co-hosted the TV show SportsNation on ESPN2. He hosted it with Michelle Beadle and later Charissa Thompson. The show started in 2009 and he left in 2012. SportsNation was designed to see what the audience thought about different topics. Colin and his co-host would give two choices. They would then try to guess which one the audience liked more. Colin announced he was leaving the show in September 2012. His last show was in December 2012.
Moving to Fox Sports
On July 16, 2015, it was announced that Colin Cowherd would leave ESPN. ESPN's president said that Colin had become famous there. He wished him the best for the future. Many sources said Colin was talking with Fox Sports. An executive at Fox Sports had worked with Colin at ESPN before. Colin's last show on ESPN was on July 24, 2015. His contract was supposed to end a week later. But he left early because of the controversial comments he made about Dominican baseball players.
On August 12, 2015, it was officially announced that Colin Cowherd would join Fox Sports. He signed a four-year deal. His show, The Herd, moved to Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1 on September 8, 2015. Kristine Leahy was the co-host and news reporter at first. Joy Taylor took over for her in 2018. Colin also helps out on the show Fox NFL Kickoff. He was also a co-host on another sports talk show called Speak for Yourself with Cowherd & Whitlock.
Starting The Volume
In 2018, Colin Cowherd teamed up with iHeartRadio to create The Herd Podcast Network. On February 1, 2021, he launched The Volume. This is a sports-talk podcast network. Its main show is The Colin Cowherd Podcast. Other podcasts on The Volume feature famous athletes like Draymond Green and Richard Sherman.
Personal Life
In February 2021, Colin Cowherd was in the hospital. He had a blood clot in his right lung.
Colin Cowherd lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Ann. He has two children, a daughter and a son.
Awards and Recognition
- Sports Illustrated named him Radio Personality of the Year in 2005.
- He was named Nevada's Sportscaster of the Year five times. This award is given by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
- PunditTracker rated him the Best Pundit of 2012 for his sports predictions.
