John Saunders (journalist)

John Peterson Saunders (February 2, 1955 – August 10, 2016) was a Canadian-American sports journalist. He worked for ESPN and ABC from 1986 until his death in 2016.

Early life

Saunders attended high school in Châteauguay, Quebec. He was an all-star defenseman in the Montreal junior leagues and received a scholarship to play hockey for Western Michigan University from 1974 to 1976 with his brother, Bernie. He transferred to Ryerson University in Toronto and played for the Rams from 1976 to 1978. After the 1977–78 season, Saunders was named to the Ontario University Athletic Association All-Star team.

Broadcast career

Saunders was the news director for CKNS Radio in Espanola, Ontario in 1978; sports anchor at CKNY-TV in North Bay, Ontario in 1978–1979; and at ATV News in New Brunswick in 1979–1980. He then worked as the main sports anchor for CITY-TV in Toronto from 1980–1982. He then moved to the United States to work as a sports anchor at WMAR-TV in Baltimore in 1982–1986.

ESPN and ABC Sports

Saunders joined ESPN in 1986. He co-hosted NFL Primetime from 1987 to 1989. He was also the secondary studio host for the network's NHL broadcasts from 1986–87 to 1987–88, filling-in for lead host Tom Mees when needed. Then, he became the lead studio host from 1992–93 until 2004 and NHL on ABC from 1992 to 1994 and again from 2000 to 2004 and hosted College Football on ABC from 1992 to 2015. He was the host of ESPN's The Sports Reporters, starting with the illness and subsequent death of Dick Schaap on December 21, 2001. He also hosted ABC's coverage of baseball under the Baseball Night in America banner, including for The Baseball Network, and was involved in ESPN's coverage earlier in his career. He also anchored the 1995 World Series for ABC.