Mike Hall (sportscaster)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael James Hall (born February 1982 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois) is an American sports broadcaster who is the top on-air personality at ESPN's newest network, ESPNU, a network devoted to college sports. The network launched on March 4, 2005, a startup date ESPN cleverly tagged, "03/04/05". At ESPNU, Hall anchors pregame, halftime, and postgame shows, in addition to season previews. As part of his delivery, he likes to drop obscure movie references and get ultra-excited at the mere mention of the Muppets.
Hall is perhaps best known for being the winner of the first season of ESPN's reality television show Dream Job. For his efforts, Hall 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.
On May 15, 2004, Hall graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia. At 1 A.M. 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. He is often seen photographed with a gigantic magnet with the label ESPN as part of the ad campaign with the slogan "Mike Hall wears shirts that color regardless of whether it is Easter Season or not."
Hall is a former Ultimate competitor. While at Missouri-Columbia, Hall was in an improvisational comedy group called "Comedy Wars", also spelled "Comedy Warz", from September 2000 through his graduation in 2004, where he was best known for his impersonation of Abe Froman. He says that if he hadn't won, he might have looked into becoming an actor or cartographer. On April 27, 2005, Hall returned to take part in "Comedy Wars" in a guest performance.
Hall later admitted during a radio interview with The Opening Drive on WJOX-FM in Birmingham, AL, that he actually can not do an impersonation of Abe Froman, and accused a friend named Casey of forging that fact on his Wikipedia entry.
Mike Hall also appears on ESPN and occaisonally ESPN2 broadcasting college games including the Division 1 NCAA Frozen Four National Championship.
Hall should not be confused with Mike Hill, an ESPN soccer broadcaster.
