Tally another “first” on Beth Mowins’ list of career accomplishments.
On Thursday, ESPN announced that Mowins will be the play by play announcer for ESPN’s 76ers-Hawks broadcast on Friday, making her the first woman to call play by play for a regular season NBA game on ESPN.
Veteran play-by-play commentator Beth Mowins will make history this Friday, December 3, as she becomes the first woman to call an NBA regular-season game on ESPN. Mowins will join analyst Jeff Van Gundy and reporter Cassidy Hubbarth to provide commentary for the Philadelphia 76ers vs. Atlanta Hawks game at 7:30 p.m. ET. Mowins has a long, storied history of firsts, including becoming the first woman to provide play-by-play for an NFL game in 30 years (ESPN’s Monday Night Football, 2017) and the first woman to call a Chicago Cubs game (2021).
Mowins called the second half of the Week 1 Monday Night Football doubleheader in both 2017 and 2018, and also called several regular season NFL games for CBS from 2017 through the current 2021 season. In addition to her regular work with ESPN, Mowins called softball for NBC’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympics this past summer and has worked as a fill-in broadcaster on Marquee, the Cubs-owned RSN.
This year, ESPN’s Leah Hextall became the first woman with a regular national NHL play by play role, and ESPN also rolled out an all-woman MLB broadcast at the end of September. Locally, Lisa Byington and Kate Scott got full-time TV play by play gigs for the Bucks and 76ers, respectively.
[ESPN]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.