Jay Crawford


Jason "Jay" Crawford is an American sports journalist who was formerly employed by ESPN. Crawford anchored the live 11AM-1PM edition of SportsCenter with Chris McKendry until April 2017. Prior to that, Crawford spent nine years hosting ESPN's morning show Cold Pizza and its successor ESPN First Take, as well as Cold Pizza's spinoff series 1st and 10 until its 2011 cancellation. He is currently a news anchor and personality for WKYC-TV in Cleveland, hosting the station's 5 pm newscast, What's New since January 2020.

Biography

Early life and career

Born in Sandusky, Ohio, Crawford graduated from Perkins High School in Sandusky, Ohio in 1983. He went on to graduate from Bowling Green State University with a bachelor's degree in Radio, Television, and Film in 1987.
Prior to joining ESPN he was the local sports director for WFTS-TV in Tampa, FL from 1998 to 2003. Prior to that stint he had a similar role at WBNS-TV in Columbus, OH from 1993 to 1998. He was a weekend sports anchor for WTIC-TV in Hartford, CT from 1992 to 1993. He started his sports career in 1987 at WYMT-TV in Hazard, Kentucky.
Crawford made three appearances as a minor league baseball pitcher in 2005, splitting time between two independent teams, the St. Paul Saints and the Long Beach Armada. He registered ad with a 2.25 ERA, and in his final outing, Crawford threw two hitless innings, striking out each batter he faced using a change-up that reached a top speed of 62 mph, while his fastball was recorded at 93 mph.
On May 21, it was announced via Twitter that in July 2012, Crawford will co-anchor SportsCenter in the noon to 3:00PM Est slot with Chris Mckendry replacing John Buccigross who moves to the 11:00PM slot. In 2004, he hosted some horse racing telecasts for ESPN.
On April 24, 2017, Crawford was laid off from his role as Sportscenter 11am-1pm host in a string of cuts including over 100 ESPN employees.
On September 26, 2017, BGSU announced that Crawford would join the university as an executive in residence. Crawford will be sharing his expertise with students and faculty in the School of Media and Communication, in the Department of Sport Management and with student-athletes.
On April 11, 2018, The Cleveland Browns announced that Crawford, alongside former Browns quarterback Tim Couch, would call the Browns preseason games in 2018.
On May 28, 2019; Tegna owned NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland announced that Crawford will become the 5 p.m. news anchor when it starts broadcasting in January 2020. In October 2019, he began to host an informal-style noontime show for the station, Lunch Break with Jay Crawford. In January 2020, Crawford became the 5 pm anchor for the new newscast "What's New" with the station chief meteorologist Betsy Kling.