Lesley Visser Bio

Lesley Visser Bio Lesley Visser is the most highly acclaimed female sportscaster of all-time. Her long and prestigious trailblazing career has seen her as the first and only woman to be recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the 2006 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio- Television Award, which recognizes “long-time exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.” Along with her NFL TODAY reporter duties, she also contributes to the network’s coverage of the NFL Playoffs and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and Final Four. In 2004 Visser became the first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch when she was honored by the International Olympic Committee as a “pioneer and standard-bearer.” In 2009 she was voted the No. 1 female sportscaster of all time by the American Sportscasters Association. Lesley Visser is the only sportscaster in history who has worked on the network broadcasts of the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympics, U.S. Open and World Figure Skating Championship. She served as lead reporter for the Network’s coverage of the NFL, teaming with CBS Sports’ No. 1 announce team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms in 2004. When Visser began covering the NFL for the Boston Globe in 1976 she became the first woman to cover the NFL as a beat and remains the only woman to have handled the Super Bowl trophy presentation, for CBS in 1992 when the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills. Visser was honored with a Billie Jean King Award, the only Billie awarded for Outstanding Journalist, in 2008. She also was honored by the American Women in Radio and Television, Inc. in June 2006 as the first woman sportscaster recipient of a Gracie Allen Award which celebrates programming created for women, by women and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the industry. In 2008, she became the first woman sportscaster to host the Gracie Awards. Visser also received the Emily Couric Leadership Award – previously given to Sandra Day O’Connor, Caroline Kennedy and Donna Brazile – and in the fall of 2008 was honored at the 22nd Annual Sports Legend Dinner, tobenefit the Buoniconti fund to cure paralysis. In 2005 she won the Pop Warner female achievement award and was inducted into the New England Sports Museum Hall of Fame. Visser was a reporter and contributor for THE SUPER BOWL TODAY, CBS Sports’ Super Bowls XXXV, XXXVIII, XLI and XLIV pre-game broadcasts. Visser also has contributed reports for CBS News and served as a reporter for HBO Sports’ “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” She spent nearly seven years with ABC Sports and was a sideline reporter for “Monday Night Football,” becoming the first woman assigned to the series and the first woman ever to report from the sidelines during a Super Bowl. While at ABC Sports, Visser served as a reporter for college football bowl games and NFL playoff games. She also contributed to ABC’s coverage of Triple Crown horse racing, “ABC’s Download a copy of Lesley’s accomplishments and accolades [Lesley's Career Highlights] Wide World of Sports,” Major League Baseball, including the World Series, figure skating, Special Olympics, skiing, the Pro Bowl, and an ABC series “A Passion to Play.” She hosted the network’s coverage of the “Millennium Tournament of Roses Parade.” Visser began her career in sports journalism in 1974 as a member of the Boston Globe sports staff on a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, two years later she was assigned to cover the New England Patriots, becoming the first ever female NFL beat writer. While at the Boston Globe she covered the NCAA Final Four, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, World Series, Wimbledon, the Olympics and college football. In 2009, Sports Illustrated named the Boston Globe Sports staff (1975-80) the best sports section of all time. Visser has been honored with the Compass Award for “changing the paradigm of her business” and was one of the 100 luminaries commemorating the 75th anniversary of the CBS Television Network in 2003. She was named “WISE Woman of the Year” in 2002 and voted the “Outstanding Women’s Sportswriter in America” in 1983 and won the “Women’s Sports Foundation Award for Journalism” in 1992. In 1999 she won the first AWSM Pioneer Award. Visser earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Boston College and received an honorary doctorate of Journalism from her alma mater in May 2007. She was born on Sept. 11 in Quincy, Massachusetts and currently resides in Bal Harbour, Florida with her husband, Robert Kanuth. .

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