Linda Cohn Set to Anchor Record 5,000th SportsCenter on February 21

On July 11, 1992, America was spending it’s day listening to Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and going to the movies to see “A League of Their Own.” At 2:00 a.m. that morning, Linda Cohn was debuting as the newest SportsCenter anchor alongside Chris Myers. She hasn’t stopped since and the person who has hosted more editions of SportsCenter than anyone else in the 36-year history of the iconic program will anchor her 5,000th show on Sunday, February 21, at 8:00 a.m. on ESPN.

To break it down, just over 60,000 SportsCenters have aired since September 1979, which means Linda Cohn has anchored roughly 8 percent of them. That might not sound like much but when you look at just how many people have anchored SportsCenter over the years and how many times a day they shoot new episodes, it becomes pretty impressive.

Good luck to the intern who has to sit through all of those past episodes to pick out moments for the highlight reel.

Cohn made history before even stepping foot behind the SportsCenter desk when she became the first full-time female sports anchor on a national radio network when she was hired by ABC in 1987. She went on to hone her TV skills at SportsChannel America, an early ESPN competitor, before eventually taking her place with the Worldwide Leader. Along the way she’s hosted just about everything on ESPN, including Baseball Tonight, National Hockey Night, NHL 2Night, RPM 2Night and ESPNNews.

These days, Cohn regularly anchors weekend morning editions of SportsCenter as well as on-location reporting for special events.

[ESPN]