ESPY Award

This article is about the sports award. For other uses, see Espy (disambiguation).
ESPY Award
2015 ESPY Awards
Awarded for Excellence in sports performance and achievements
Country United States
Host Joel McHale
First awarded 1993
Official website espn.go.com/espys/
Television/Radio coverage
Networks
ESPN (1993–2014)
ABC (2015–present)

An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN, to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus previous months. As the similarly styled Grammy (for music), Emmy (for television), Academy Award (for film), and Tony (for theatre), the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is more relaxed, light, and self-referential than that of many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included.

From their inception to 2004, ESPY Award winners were chosen only through voting by fans. Since 2004, sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, and sportspersons, collectively experts; or ESPN personalities also vote. Award winners have been selected thereafter exclusively through online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.

Charitable role

A portion of the proceeds from sales of tickets to the event devolves on the V Foundation, a charity established by collegiate basketball coach and television commentator Jim Valvano to promote cancer research. Valvano announced the creation of the charitable foundation during his acceptance of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the inaugural ESPY telecast on March 3, 1993, fifty-five days before Valvano's death from metastatic adenocarcinoma.

Design

The ESPY Award statuette was designed and created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan.[1]

Ceremonies

Timing

Between 1993 and 2001, the ceremony was held each year in either February or March and was broadcast recorded on ESPN.

Since 2002, the ceremony has been conducted on the Wednesday in July following the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game; as it marks the only day of the year that none of the major North American professional leagues have games scheduled for that day—the National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League are not in-season (though the NBA does have its exhibition NBA Summer League going on and NFL teams are getting ready for training camp), and MLB does not contest games on the day following its all-star game—major sports figures are available to attend. The show is aired on the subsequent Sunday four days later, although the results are announced on ESPN.com and thereafter across media outlets immediately after taping is complete. For the first time since 2003 the ESPY Awards were televised live on ESPN, July 14, 2010.[2] In 2015 the ESPY Awards will come to network television for the first time, as ABC will air the awards.

Location

The first seven editions of the ESPYs were held in New York City—in 1993 and 1994 at Madison Square Garden and from 1995 through 1999, at Radio City Music Hall. The awards relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, for two years beginning in 2000, and ultimately settled at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. In 2006, it was announced that the awards would move in 2008 to the Microsoft Theater (formerly the Nokia Theatre), to be situated as the West Coast headquarters of ESPN at LA Live, adjacent to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Hosts

The ceremonies have been hosted variously by comedians, television and film actors, and sportspeople. American film actor Samuel L. Jackson is the only individual to have hosted four times (in 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2009); American comedian Dennis Miller, American film actor and singer Jamie Foxx, and actor and comedian Seth Meyers are the only others to have hosted the awards ceremonies more than once.

Year-by-year

Date Iteration Venue Host
July 15, 2015 23rd Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles Joel McHale
July 16, 2014 22nd Drake
July 17, 2013 21st Jon Hamm
July 11, 2012 20th Rob Riggle
July 13, 2011 19th Seth Meyers
July 14, 2010 18th
July 19, 2009 17th Samuel L. Jackson
July 20, 2008 16th Justin Timberlake
July 11, 2007 15th Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles LeBron James & Jimmy Kimmel
July 16, 2006 14th Lance Armstrong
July 17, 2005 13th Matthew Perry
July 18, 2004 12th Jamie Foxx
July 16, 2003 11th
July 10, 2002 10th Samuel L. Jackson
February 12, 2001 9th MGM Grand, Las Vegas
February 14, 2000 8th Jimmy Smits
February 15, 1999 7th Radio City Music Hall, New York Samuel L. Jackson
February 9, 1998 6th Norm Macdonald
February 10, 1997 5th Jeff Foxworthy
February 12, 1996 4th Tony Danza
February 13, 1995 3rd John Goodman
February 14, 1994 2nd Madison Square Garden, New York Dennis Miller
March 4, 1993 1st

Awards

American professional golfer Tiger Woods is the most-honored ESPY recipient, having received 21 awards.

Extant

Cross-cutter categories

Cross-cutter awards are those for which the eligibility is not confined to those sportspersons participating in, or those events occurring in, any single or specific sport.

Individual categories

Individual awards are those for which eligibility is limited to those partaking of a single individual or team sport or specific sport category.

Sponsored categories

Sponsored awards are those otherwise constituted as cross-cutter awards the titles and eligibility criteria of which reflect corporate sponsorship.

Discontinued, irregular, or superseded

Cross-cutter categories

Cross-cutter awards are those the eligibility for which is not confined to those sportspersons participating in, or those events occurring in, any single or specific sport.

Individual categories

Individual awards are those for which eligibility is limited to those partaking of a single individual or team sport or specific sport category.

Sponsored categories

Sponsored awards are those otherwise constituted as cross-cutter awards the titles and eligibility criteria of which reflect corporate sponsorship.

References

  1. ↑ "Sculptor commissioned to complete Joe Frazier statue has died". Barre Montpelier Times Argus. 2013-08-02. Retrieved 2013-08-27.
  2. ↑ http://espys.espneventmedia.com
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 The Best Female and Best Male College Basketball and Best College Football Player ESPY Awards, awarded betwixt 1993 and 2001, inclusive, were absorbed in 2002 by the Best Female and Best Male College Athlete ESPY Awards.
  4. 1 2 3 Between 2002 and 2004, inclusive, a single award for best sportsperson with a disability was presented; in 2005, the award was bifurcated by gender and reconstituted as the Best Female and Best Male Athlete with a Disability ESPY Awards.
  5. ↑ In 2001, the Outstanding Team ESPY Award was bifurcated and two new awards—styled as the Pro Team of the Year ESPY Award and College Team of the Year ESPY Award—were presented; the two were combined once more in 2002.
  6. 1 2 3 In 2002 and 2003, a single award, styled in the former year as the Best Action Athlete of the Year ESPY Award, for best action sportsperson was presented; in 2004, the award was bifurcated by gender and reconstituted as the Best Male and Best Female Action Sports Athlete ESPY Awards.
  7. 1 2 Between 1993 and 2006, inclusive, the award for best fighter, styled as the Best Boxer ESPY Award, was limited only to boxers; the Best Fighter ESPY Award absorbed the former in 2007.
  8. 1 2 3 Between 1993 and 2004 inclusive, and again since 2009, the award for best professional golfer has been bifurcated by gender.
  9. 1 2 3 Between 1993 and 2006 inclusive, with the exception of 2005, separate ESPYs for the best male and female track athletes were presented. These were combined into a single award in 2007.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ESPN "ESPY Awards past winners" Check |url= value (help). espn.go.com. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ESPN "Best of the ESPYs - Best of the Best, Winners Archive" Check |url= value (help). espn.go.com. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  12. 1 2 "ESPYs Moments: A Classic Look Back". ESPN.com. July 13, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  13. 1 2 3 Both males and females were eligible for the 2000 and 2001 iterations of the award, which was bifurcated by gender and reconstituted as the Best Female and Best Male Soccer Player ESPY Awards in 2002; the awards were merged into a single award in 2005 and ended a year later.
  14. ↑ Amongst those eligible for the Best Outdoor Sportsman ESPY Award were bass sport fishermen; such sportspersons are eligible for the Best Angler ESPY Award, which partially replaced the former award and was first presented in 2006.

External links

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