After being hired by ESPN in 1983….Gardner served as a SportsCenter anchor for three years…..while moving to NBC from 1987-1993. Among the assignments that she undertook included anchoring NBC’s New Year’s Day college football bowl game coverage….as seen in the video herewith….along with NFL Live!….Major League Baseball: An Inside Look….NBC’s 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics coverage…. the French Open….Wimbledon….and NBC’s “Prudential Sports Updates“.
In January, 1989, Gardner was a member of the NBC broadcast team for Super Bowl XXIII between the San Francisco 40’ers Vs the Cincinnati Bengals. On August 3, 1993, Gardner became the first woman to do televised play-by-play of a baseball game when she called the action of a game between the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds.
Simply put, Gayle Gardner was a path-finder for all subsequent female sportscasters…..and she did it with grace and dignity.
