UConn Firsts: ESPN College GameDay
ESPN College GameDay, the network’s weekly college basketball preview show, has originated from Gampel Pavilion five times. UConn played host to the first-ever GameDay for men’s basketball twenty years ago this week on January 22, 2005, and the first-ever for women’s basketball on January 16, 2010. GameDay has also made the trip to Gampel for men’s games in 2012, 2014 and, most recently, in 2024. The show is televised before a raucous audience of mostly students and sets the stage for important basketball weekends. Among the hosts of GameDay that have made their way to UConn are Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps, Dick Vitale, Doris Burke, Jay Williams, Seth Greenberg, Andraya Carter, and Christine Williamson. UConn and the Bristol-based ESPN have a long tradition dating back to a demonstration weekend of programming in November of 1978. A UConn men’s basketball exhibition game and a men’s soccer match were part of that early programming. UConn’s first-ever NCAA championship in any sport was won by the field hockey team in 1981 and the final game was televised live on ESPN. UConn graduates have gained fame on ESPN’s airwaves, including Rebecca Lobo, Dan Orlovsky, Darius Butler, and Molly Qerim.
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