Lesley Visser is the most highly acclaimed female sportscaster of all time.
Lesley was the first women recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as she was the 2006 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. The award is given annually by the Hall of Fame to recognize “long-time exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.”
In six Halls of Fame, Visser is often recognized as the “First” – the first woman enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame; the first woman to report from a Super Bowl sideline; the first woman to cover the NFL as a beat; the first and only woman to present the Championship Lombardi Trophy at the Super Bowl; the first female sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch, the first woman on “Monday Night Football”, and the first female analyst in both Radio and TV.
Lesley is also the only sportscaster, male or female, to have worked on the Network Broadcasts of the Final Four, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the Olympics, the World Series, the Triple Crown, the World Figure Skating Championship, and the US Open Tennis.
She was voted the No. 1 Female Sportscaster of All-Time by the National Sportscasters of America.
Lesley’s career began at the Boston Globe in 1974, after she won a Carnegie Foundation Grant, given to only 20 women in the country who wanted to go into jobs that were 95% male.
She has been named a Muhammad Ali “Daughter of Greatness” and was honored for her achievements by the 18th World Congress of Sport. In 2016, she won the Newseum Award for Lifetime Achievement, which was first given to Walter Cronkite.
Lesley had the privilege of reporting from the ‘Fall of the Berlin Wall’ in 1989. She also had the honor of throwing out the first pitch for her beloved Red Sox in 2013.
Lesley was elected to the Sportswriters Hall of Fame for her work at the Boston Globe, magazines and CBS.com. She was voted to the Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame for her work at CBS, ABC and HBO.
Be sure to join Frank and Billy on August 25 for this special episode of ‘A Mick A Mook and A Mic’, as they interview Lesley Visser, a great person and an iconic sportscaster.
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