Linda Cohn
Anchor, Host
ESPN
Linda Cohn of ESPN will serve as the emcee at the U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup Awards Luncheon on Thursday, June 22.
Cohn, who joined ESPN in 1992, embraced a variety of new roles in the summer of 2005, including hosting ESPNEWS' NFL Blitz; reporting from Detroit for multiple programs leading to Super Bowl XL; hosting weekly NASCAR segments on ESPNEWS; hosting golf remotes for SportsCenter, including the TOUR Championship; and serving as play-by-play commentator for WNBA games and hosting the league's All-Star game and finals on ABC. She continues to anchor select SportsCenter's, including Saturdays during college football season.
Previously as SportsCenter's "late night" anchor on the 1:00 a.m. ET program, Cohn was seen throughout the morning as the show is re-aired every weekday from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. She also anchored select 11:00 p.m. ET shows. Cohn also provides onsite SportsCenter reports from the Men's Final Four and weekly "Extra Point" commentaries on ESPN Radio.
Since January 2004, Cohn has anchored SportsCenter's live X Games (Los Angeles) and Winter X Games (Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado) coverage, presenting highlights and introducing the final competition of events.
She had the honor of co-hosting the first-ever SportsCenter in high definition from ESPN's new Digital Center on June 7, 2004.
Known for her versatility, Cohn has hosted ESPN's Baseball Tonight and National Hockey Night, ESPN2's NHL 2Night and RPM 2Night and SportsCenter's NBA All-Star Game coverage. She has also contributed to ESPN's NFL Draft coverage, Major League Baseball playoff coverage, the ESPYs and Sunday NFL Countdown. During the 1998 season, she was one of three alternating hosts for the NFL on ESPN Radio, the network's Sunday coverage of NFL games. She also provided play-by-play of ESPN and ESPN2's coverage of the LPGA (1998-99). From 1999 to 2002, Cohn's column "Linda Cohn's Hotline" was regularly featured in ESPN The Magazine's Life section.
Beginning October 1989, Cohn worked at KIRO-TV in Seattle, where she was a weekend sports anchor/reporter and covered the Seattle Mariners, Seahawks and Supersonics, the Washington Huskies, the NCAA Basketball West Regional in 1991 and the Goodwill Games in 1990. Prior to that, Cohn served as a sports reporter for both SportsChannel America and News 12 on Long Island (1988-89).
The first full-time female sports anchor on a national radio network (ABC), Cohn was a sports anchor for the ABC Radio Network and for WABC TalkRadio from 1987-89. She began her career in Patchogue, New York, as a news anchor, writer and sports reporter for WALK-AM/FM in 1981. She then worked with three other New York radio stations until 1987. In 1985, she began working for WLIG-TV on Long Island as a part-time anchor and reporter. She also worked as anchor, news director and chief correspondent for Long Island News Tonight, a daily television news program (1985-86).
Cohn received a bachelor of arts degree in communications from SUNY Oswego in 1981. As a senior at Newfield (N.Y.) High School, she served as the goalie on the boy's ice hockey team and in college on the Oswego women's ice hockey team.
