John Anderson had a well-deserved win on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
Anderson hosted his final show on Friday after 25 years with the station before leaving to teach broadcast journalism at his alma mater, the University of Missouri.
The farewell party began with remarks from a group of current and former anchors, including Neil Everett, Nicole Briscoe, Linda Cohn, Stan Verrett, Hannah Storm, Scott Van Pelt, David Lloyd and Jay Harris.
Then it was Anderson’s turn.
“I’m so grateful. I think there’s a billion people, actually a couple thousand people, who have done amazing things here,” he said.
“But if [former ESPN VP] Al Jaffe, like so many others, won’t hire me. Nothing’s going to happen. So we’re going to go with Al Jaffe. And I’m grateful for all the people who follow after him.
Anderson said he doesn’t want a big farewell party.
“I really just kept telling people I want to do this regularly and then quietly fade away into the night,” he said.
Co-host Steve Levy asked with a straight face, “How’s it going?”
Anderson continued sarcastically.
“I think we accomplished that,” he said. “I think that was an understatement all along, and I can just walk away.”
Anderson continued to express his gratitude afterwards.
“I owe a lot to a lot of people. I always say Linda Cohn helped me launch my career because she was the first person I sat next to and she was the one who was ‘made’ so I gained instant credibility,” he said.
“And it made it even better working with you, because I was next to you and everybody knows Steve ‘TV’ Levy. And I’ve had the great benefit of being next to you so many times. We’ve had a lot of great times, except for the night we were here. That was a 22-inning game in San Diego. But I don’t have to worry about that anymore.” Zubin [Mehenti] I’m going to do all my shows.”
Anderson and Levy embraced, and Levy said his final goodbye as the show’s end credits rolled.
