Who are the greatest anchors in the long history of ESPN’s flagship show, SportsCenter? Kenny Mayne, himself a longtime former anchor tackled that question in a recent appearance on Jemele Hill’s Spolitics podcast.
Hill asked Mayne to list his all-time top five. The only restriction she gave was that he could not name himself.
Mayne offered up five names — Chris Berman, Bob Ley, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann and Stuart Scott. He then added Scott Van Pelt as an alternate, saying “With Van Pelt coming in for Stuart, since he has passed.”
My guest this week on SPOLITICS is former ESPN personality Kenny Mayne. We discuss the devastating injury that ended his football career and led to him considering amputation, the many times he considered leaving ESPN for he finally left in 2021, and his wiffle ball documentary.… pic.twitter.com/390oPXnC1l
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) April 4, 2025
Mayne was initially nervous about naming his top five for the obvious fear of notable omissions.
“I’m just going old school,” Mayne said. “And I’m gonna leave a lot of people out.”
“It’s the nature of a top five,” Hill replied. “Everybody can’t be in the top five. Can’t have 20 in the top five. Five is five — and it’s your five.”
Hill also praised Mayne’s list, calling it “A very credible and wonderful top five.”
As SportsCenter has been around since 1979, hundreds of anchors have hosted the show. So, it would likely be hard to find any top five lists that were exactly the same. That said, most top-five lists would likely include at least some of the names Mayne mentioned.
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