Longtime ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor John Anderson is taking his talents to academia.
Anderson, whose final show after 25 years at ESPN is this Friday, announced that he will be joining the faculty at his alma mater, the University of Missouri.
“Why wouldn’t you want to go play for the Yankees?” Anderson told Mizzou communications staffer Austin Fitzgerald in a release. “That’s what Mizzou is. If you’re going to go play, why not go play for the team with all the world titles? I could not have thought of a better post-ESPN landing spot.”
Anderson, who graduated from the school in 1987, will be fulfilling the Leonard H. Goldenson Endowed Chair in Radio and Television Journalism.
He credits Mizzou for teaching him the foundational elements of broadcasting that he still utilizes today.
“When I go in tonight and do the show, something that I learned at that campus will show up in the broadcast in some way, shape or form,” Anderson said.
“The value of being correct, as opposed to right and wrong — Missouri taught me that you are responsible not only for what you say but what people hear,” Anderson said. “I’m really glad that I am rooted in a schooling that was very much, ‘hey, let’s start with the basics. Get the facts and present them correctly.’ That’s foundational. It’s a tenet of the whole job, and it seems obvious, but it’s become something that is so important to think about every time you make a keystroke.”
Anderson grew up in Green Bay and announced in March on his Wisconsin-sports-centric podcast that his time at ESPN would be coming to a conclusion in late June.
In the Mizzou release, he noted that teaching runs in his blood.
“I come from a line of educators,” Anderson said. “My grandparents were teachers, and my mother, being raised by those people, had respect for teachers. Two of my uncles taught math. That sort of trickled down to me.”
The school is excited to have him there.
“John has kept fans and aspiring sports journalists in the know for more than two decades, and I’m so excited that he has chosen to bring that experience back to his alma mater for the benefit of new generations of students,” David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism, said in the announcement.