Pam Ward leaving ESPN after three decades

ESPN celebrated longtime broadcaster Pam Ward on Tuesday morning with a video saluting her almost three-decade career following her recent retirement.

The nearly two-and-a-half-minute video package featured salutes from WNBA legends Tamika Catchings and Rebecca Lobo, Fever coach Stephanie White, colleague Holly Rowe and others.

“You’re someone I’ve looked up to,” Rowe said in the video tribute. “I’ve always admired your courage on play-by-play for college football. … You have been so wonderful for so long and I hope you look at this past career with joy and happiness because you deserve that.”

Ward joined ESPN in 1996 as an ESPNEWS anchor and had last served as a play-by-play broadcaster for the network’s women’s college basketball, college softball and WNBA games, per her ESPN bio.

She made history in 2000 when she became the first woman to ever call a Division I college football game when she sat behind the mic for the Bowling Green vs. Toledo contest on ESPN2 on Nov. 22.

The 2001 season marked her first full year calling college football after previously serving as a sideline reporter for ESPN2 broadcasts in 1996.

She earned the Jake Wade Award in 2010 from the College Sports Communicators, which is “presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in the media to the field of intercollegiate athletics.”

During her time with the WorldWide Leader, she also appeared on shows such as “WNBA Shootaround,” “NBA Today,” “NFL Tonight” and “NHL 2Night,” and hosted “The NFL on ESPN Radio” and pre- and postgame shows for MLB broadcasts on ESPN Radio.

“I’m going to miss sitting next to you calling WNBA games or college games,” Lobo said in the ESPN video. “The first college game I ever did as an analyst, you were my play-by-play. You took very good care of me that 25 years and you’ve taken very good care of me ever since.

“You’ve been awesome ever since I’ve known you, and I appreciate everything you helped me do throughout my time at ESPN.”