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Mike Adamle

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Mike Adamle
No. 1
Position:Running back
Career information
College:Northwestern
NFL draft:1971 / Round: 5 / Pick: 120
Career history
Career highlights and awards

Michael David Adamle (born October 4, 1949) is a sports personality and former National Football League player. He is perhaps best known as the co-host of the cult-favorite American Gladiators series for seven years.

Adamle is currently a sports anchor and reporter at Chicago's WMAQ-TV (Channel 5) . In addition, he has previously been an anchor at other Chicago television stations, including WLS-TV (Channel 7) from 1983-1989 before his Gladiators hosting, a first stint at WMAQ from 1998-2001, and then at WBBM-TV (Channel 2) from 2001-2004 before returning to Channel 5.

Since January 2008, Adamle has worked for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in a variety of roles, including interviewer, play-by-play commentator, and General Manager of the Raw brand.

Biography

Mike Adamle grew up in Kent, Ohio and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1967.[1] His father, Tony Adamle, also found some success with the Cleveland Browns in the 1940s and 1950's.

Adamle suffers from epilepsy, which he initially refused to accept but later embraced it. After work with Epilepsy Foundation, where he is currently a member of the Greater Chicago division's board of directors, Adamle was given their Personal Achievement Award at the 2007 Richard N. Rovner Awards Dinner.[2][3]

Football

Adamle played running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, the New York Jets and the Chicago Bears of the NFL. Before that, he starred for Northwestern University. He was a fairly renowned player in each franchise, known for his stupendous strength, unearthly stamina, and outstanding agility.

Hosting and announcing

Adamle has over thirty years of experience in sports television. Much of it was spent at NBC Sports, where he was both a studio host and sideline reporter for various events. His most famous gig was as the host of GrandStand, which was both a pregame show for the National Football League (NFL) and a sports anthology show during the NFL's offseason.

He was also the co-host of American Gladiators from 1989 to 1996 and was a contender in a celebrity contenders show towards the end of the show's run. The syndicated show became a cult favorite throughout the United States. Adamle was joined by fellow ex-NFL players Joe Theismann, Todd Christensen and Larry Csonka. Adamle also co-hosted International Gladiators with the UK and Australian Hosts and commentated in one series alongside UK commentator John Sachs. After American Gladiators ended, he became a reporter for SportsCenter for a short time.

Adamle (and fellow NBC local sports anchor Fred Roggin) were sideline reporters during the only season of XFL football in 2001. He has also covered the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. In the summer of 2005, Adamle was the host of another NBC property, Bravo's Battle of the Network Reality Stars. In July 2006, Adamle became a color commentator for the Professional Bull Riders (PBR)'s Built Ford Tough Series (another event which NBC has split rights).

World Wrestling Entertainment (2008)

On January 27, 2008, Adamle began working as an interviewer for WWE at the Royal Rumble where he accidentally pronounced Jeff Hardy's name wrong. [4] He then worked on WWE Raw as a interviewer until becoming ECW's play-by-play announcer on April 15, replacing Joey Styles.[5] Many noticed that Adamle made constant mistakes during his commentary duties on ECW, with former ECW owner and booker Paul Heyman and former talent Lance Storm criticizing Adamle.[6][7] On April 29, Adamle left a broadcast of ECW before the main event match, followed by his partner Tazz. As a part of a storyline, the WWE website reported that Adamle and Tazz may have left due to fan criticism of Adamle's commentary.[8] The following week he cut a promo apologizing for his actions, but was still met with derision and boos from the crowd.

Feuds (2008-present)

On the July 28, 2008 episode of Raw, Executive Vice President Shane McMahon announced that Adamle was the new General Manager for the Raw brand.[9] During his tenure as General Manager of Raw, promoted a variety of high-profile matches that he dubbed as "Adamle Originals." On the October 27, 2008 episode of Raw, Adamle slapped Randy Orton after Orton insulted him personally. The following week on Raw, during a in-ring segment with McMahon and Orton, Adamle resigned from his position as General Manager.

References

  1. ^ "Kent City Schools Hall of Fame Archives". Kent City Schools. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
  2. ^ "2007 Richard N. Rovner Awards Dinner". Chicago Business. 2007-04-16. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
  3. ^ "Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago - Board of Directors". Epilepsy Foundation. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
  4. ^ Adkins, Greg (2008-01-25). "Mike Adamle joins WWE". WWE. Retrieved 2008-01-26.
  5. ^ Rote, Andrew (2008-04-21). "WWE.com adds style". WWE. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  6. ^ Heyman, Paul (2008-04-18). "Mike Adamle is truly awful". The Sun. Retrieved 2008-04-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Storm, Lance (2008-04-28). "Mike Adamle". StormWrestling.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  8. ^ "ECW Walk-Off". WWE. 2008-04-29. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  9. ^ Sitterson, Aubrey (2008-07-28). "That's "Mr. Adamle" to you". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
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