Mike Hall (sportscaster)
|
|
Michael James Hall (born in February of 1982 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois) is an American sports broadcaster who was the winner of the first season of ESPN's reality television show Dream Job. For his efforts, the 23-year-old Glen Ellyn, Illinois native won a one-year contract to be an anchor on ESPN's popular sports news program SportsCenter, and a new Mazda3. On the night that he won, March 28, 2004, Hall also took a sports quiz to raise his salary. His salary started at $70,000. He then answered 5 trivia questions, each correct answer worth $5,000, to bump his first-year salary to $95,000.
Hall and fellow contestant Maggie Haskins made headlines of a different kind days earlier on March 19, when they were featured in the Entertainment section of the New York Post, which said the two were dating, something they confirmed on the show two days later. However, a few days after Hall's big win, the couple broke up. Haskins says the two are still friends.
On May 15, 2004, Hall graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia. At 1 AM Eastern Standard Time on July 20, 2004, Hall began his stint as an official SportsCenter anchor alongside Linda Cohn, having already done some work for ESPNews.
Hall is a former ultimate frisbee competitor. While at Missouri-Columbia, Hall was in an improvisational comedy group called "Comedy Wars." He says that if he hadn't won, he might've looked into becoming an actor.
Hall's future at ESPN looks very promising. He recently became the top on-air personality at ESPN's newest network, ESPNU, a network devoted to college sports, when it launched Friday, March 4, 2005, a start-up date that ESPN cleverly gave the nickname, "03/04/05". The only thing the new gig required was that Hall move from Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN's main studio is located, to Charlotte, where ESPNU's studio is located. He has recently signed a two-year contract extension.
On April 27, 2005, Hall returned to take part in "Comedy Wars" in a guest performance. Details about that and his contract extension can be found here: [1] (http://digmo.org/Utown/story.php?ID=13609).
External link
- Columbia-Missourian story about Hall's new job at ESPNU on the day the network launched (http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=12498)
- Press release from espn.com about Hall's being named top anchor-free for all to view (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=1987603)
- Article from Sports Illustrated on Campus on Hall (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/sioncampus/10/06/hall1007/)