Ryan Burr
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Ryan Burr (born March 17, 1972, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a sports television journalist. Burr has worked for the NBC Sports Group since 2012, with his duties mainly consisting of golf and college basketball coverage. For golf, he is the main studio host on NBC's Golf Channel, as well as an occasional play-by-play voice. For college basketball, he mainly works as a play-by-play announcer on East Coast telecasts airing on the NBC Sports Network. Before joining the NBC Sports Group, Burr was previously a studio host and Sports Center anchor for ESPN.
The Fix
Burr published his first novel in 2014 titled "The Fix" a nonfiction tale about a college football player who gets caught up in gambling.
Early life and career
Burr grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated in 1994 from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, earning a bachelor degree in Broadcast Journalism. While a student at Syracuse, Burr regularly worked as a television play-by-play announcer, studio host, and radio personality for several media outlets. In 1994, Burr began working as a play-by-play announcer and studio host for Time Warner in Clearwater, Florida.
Before ESPN
Prior to joining ESPN, Burr worked at Fox Sports Net in Pittsburgh, (serving the pre-game host for the Pirates and Penguins telecasts) and ABC owned and operated station WTVG-TV in Toledo, Ohio. Previously he was sports director WKTV-TV in Utica, New York where he received a local AP Broadcaster-of-the-Year award, and at Channel 9 in Tampa, Florida.
Career at ESPN
Burr left FSN in Pittsburgh in August 2005 for Bristol, Connecticut. He began working for ESPNews. In April 2007 he was named a host of NASCAR Now, ESPN’s first daily program dedicated solely to NASCAR news and information. In November 2008 Burr moved to the college basketball studios where he was named host of the ESPN program Midnight Madness (now College Basketball Final). Burr worked on SportsCenter and anchored the 6pm SportsCenter every Saturday and Sunday. In addition he hosted college football and college basketball for ESPN, as a host for College Football Live & College Basketball Final.
On March 13, 2012, Burr created controversy by sending out a message on his Twitter account to Nerlens Noel, the #1 player in 2012 high school class, that he should come to Syracuse (Burr's alma mater) to replace Fab Melo, who earlier in the day was ruled academically ineligible and is expected to enter the upcoming NBA Draft.
On July 2, 2012, he announced he would leaving ESPN for NBC Sports and the Golf Channel.