John Buccigross

48
John Buccigross bigraphy, stories - Hockey

John Buccigross : biography

January 27, 1966 –

John Buccigross (born January 27, 1966, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvaniahttp://espnmediazone.com/us/bios/buccigross_john/) is an American sportscaster. He has been an anchor for ESPN since 1996.

Biography

Born at Allegheny General Hospital on Pittsburgh’s northside, he was raised in nearby Indiana, Pennsylvania before moving at 11 to Steubenville, Ohio. A graduate of Steubenville Catholic Central High School,http://blogs.post-gazette.com/sports/road-to-the-frozen-four/37616-a-conversation-with-john-buccigross and Heidelberg College (where he majored in Communications and Theater Arts), his television duties include the Emmy winning SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight. He formerly served as the co-host of the Emmy nominated NHL 2Night. Before working for ESPN, he worked in Providence, Rhode Island and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Buccigross signed a book deal in the spring of 2006 with Middle Atlantic Press to write the life story of former NHL player and current NHL analyst Keith Jones. The book’s title is Jonesy: Put Your Head Down And Skate. The Improbable NHL Career of Keith Jones. The book was released on October 2, 2007. Buccigross described himself in a 2006 column: "I’m 6-foot-4, 192 pounds. Mizuno MP33 irons. Big Run-DMC fan. Love chicken parm. Once played golf with Ray Bourque and tried to intentionally three putt from 30 feet so I could say I shot a 77 playing golf with Ray Bourque. Instead, the slippery downhill putt went in and I shot a 75 not playing golf with Brett Lindros.". One of his catch-phrases is "nahmally good", which is a play on "normally good", and he refers to painful experiences by claiming, "Oh, Knights of Columbus that hurts!" Also, on occasion, he uses a Pittsburgh English or Pittsburghese accent, in his announcements of Pittsburgh sports.

Buccigross started hosting the live afternoon shift of SportsCenter from noon to 3:00 ET on September 7, 2009, replacing Robert Flores.

From 2001 – 2010, Buccigross authored a weekly NHL column for ESPN.com.http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2009/10/28/buccigross_john/ Since November 30, 2010, however, no new columns have appeared on the website and no explanation has been given by either Buccigross or the network as to why the columns have stopped.

On February 8, 2011, John Buccigross said that his column would be returning in the near future during an appearance on The Sports-Casters podcast John said he would tweet when the new column is posted.

It was announced on May 21, 2012, via Twitter that Buccigross will move from noon to 3:00 ET slot to the 11:00PM slot in July 2012. Jay Crawford host of ESPN First take replaces him.

Buccigross is a member of the Advisory Board for You Can Play, a campaign dedicated to fighting homophobia in sports.

He lives in South Windsor, Connecticut.

During the 2012 NHL Playoffs, John Buccigross hosted the #Bucciovertimechallenge on Twitter, asking users to guess the player (one for each team) who would score the game-winning goal for every overtime game throughout the course of the playoffs. He continued the game during the 2013 playoffs including endorsements from Bauer Hockey and Hockey Soda Energy. He has a website set up at http://www.bucciovertimechallenge.com.