How Fordham Launched The Careers Of Mike Breen And Other Sportscasters

BusinessSportsMoneyHow Fordham Launched The Careers Of Mike Breen And Other SportscastersByTim Casey,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Tim Casey is a reporter who covers basketball and sports business.Follow AuthorJun 03, 2026, 06:00am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Curt Gowdy Media Awards recipient Mike Breen speaks at the 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame awards tip-off celebration and awards gala Friday, May 14, 2021, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.As a senior in high school, Mike Breen applied to three colleges. He didn’t get into his first choice. On a visit to another, he knew it wasn’t the right fit. That’s why Breen ended up at Fordham University, about a 10-minute drive from his home in Yonkers, N.Y., even though he always thought he would go further away to school. Turns out, that choice played a pivotal role in his highly successful career and to lifelong friendships.On Wednesday night, Breen will call Game 1 of the NBA finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks, the team he grew up rooting for and the franchise he has broadcast games for the past three decades. It will be the 21st consecutive year Breen will serve as the finals’ play-by-play voice for ABC/ESPN. The network has shuffled analysts but always kept around Breen, who won the prestigious Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.Breen, who turned 65 last month, is one of many Fordham alums who have had success in sports broadcasting, a source of pride for the Catholic school in the Bronx, N.Y., 15 miles from Madison Square Garden, where Breen will call Games 3 and 4 next Monday and Wednesday nights.Fordham traces its sports announcing roots to 1947 with the introduction of WFUV, a 50,000-watt radio station that still exists and launched t...