I was super stoked a few days ago to see an advertisement for a podcast that was just created that hits me in ALL of the nostalgia feels. “This Was Sportcenter”, hosted by the great Rich Eisen, is a limited podcast series produced by Gusto that promises to make you remember back fondly on what I consider the Golden Era of ESPN. That 1990’s time period where if you were a sports fan, in a time prior to sports debate tv shows, social media, push notifications, tweets and posts, and really before the internet was what it is today, the way you got your daily sports scores, recaps, and breaking news from the world of NFL, MLB, NBA, and every other sport, was tuning in to Sportcenter – whether it was before school, the 6PM edition while Mom and Dad were watching the regular news, or the 11PM edition right before you dozed off to sleep.
I have been pining for years for ESPN to come out with a streaming service (they could very easily do this on ESPN+) where you could go back at any point in the past and choose a specific year and date, and watch the Sportcenter editions for that day in their entirety. You would instantly relive the moments, news, and events just as they were delivered, from the iconic Sportscenter anchors of the past.
Eisen promises that the podcast will feature tons of former ESPN anchors and icons that we all grew up and loved, and the first episode comes out with one of the most well known Sportcenter anchors of the 1990s – Dan Patrick. The man (along with his partner Keith Olbermann) were the gold standard of sports news broadcasting duos for the company. With his classic trademark catchphrases like “En Fuego”, “NOTHING but the bottom of the net”, and “The Whiffffffff”, Patrick become one of the many personalities that in many eyes became bigger than the brand they were working for.
For 40 and 50 somethings who grew up loving sports prior to the advent of the way sports and news are delivered to us now, this is sure to be a great podcast. I’ll be downloading each episode as it’s delivered. Subscribe to “This Was Sportscenter” in your favorite podcast app today!
Ken