Carter Blackburn (born 1979) is an American sportscaster. He currently works for ESPN and ESPNU as play-by-play announcer on various telecasts. By age thirty-one, Blackburn had called the NFL on Fox, NCAA Basketball Tournaments on CBS, and college football on ABC. Blackburn called then-Penn State coach Joe Paterno’s record setting 409th win for ABC, Paterno’s last game as coach before being fired as a result of the Penn State sex abuse scandal.
Blackburn made his national broadcast television debut on CBS Sports with a Big Ten women's basketball game between Penn State and Michigan State in January, 2008. He later called two 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament games, working afternoon session games at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. He reprised that role in 2009. His broadcast partner was Jay Bilas.
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Blackburn was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Kerrville, in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio. Blackburn began his broadcasting career at KERV/KRVL radio during his sophomore year at Tivy High School. By his junior year in high school, he was sports director for the radio station, doing morning drive-time reports on area high school sports and Texas college and pro teams as well as providing play-by-play for radio and TV for football, basketball, softball, and baseball.
He then graduated Syracuse University in 2001 with a degree in broadcast journalism (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications) and political science.
He worked for International Sports Properties (ISP) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Fox Sports Net South from 2001 to 2003; among his assignments were games in what became the NBA Development League. He joined CBS College Sports (then known as CSTV) in 2003 when the channel launched. In September 2009 he began broadcasting for ESPN and ESPNU. He provides play-by-play for TV broadcasts of NCAA football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and lacrosse. In 2011, Blackburn broadcast the 2008 Reebok Grand Prix where Usain Bolt set a new world record in the 100 meters with a time of 9.71. In 2011 Blackburn provided play-by-play for the World Series of Softball tournament in Oklahoma City, OK.
According to an article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram (see below), Blackburn is the second-youngest announcer of an NCAA Tournament game, at least in CBS's run as the telecaster. Jim Nantz was the only one younger (26 years old in 1985).
He also calls Little League Baseball games for ESPN.
Blackburn lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, the former Karen Hubbert, who is a 2004 graduate of Texas Tech University.
http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2011/09/19/blackburn_carter