SALT LAKE CITY — I sent a text of get-well wishes to ESPN’s Holly Rowe, Monday, knowing she might not even see it. It was buried behind a long string of missives others had sent, stretching from Utah to Bristol, Connecticut.
She was in demand as an aspiring sideline reporter and remains so today, even while she’s, well, sidelined. After a second surgery for cancer, last week in Salt Lake, an impressive list of sports figures sent text messages, which according Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated, included Geno Auriemma, Breanna Stewart, Tamika Catchings, Urban Meyer, Bill Self, Brittney Griner, Lon Kruger, Shaka Smart, Fred Hoiberg, Sue Bird and Les Miles, among others.
Twitter mentions included those from Lindsay Whalen and teams from Iowa State, South Carolina and Connecticut. Rowe posted a picture of flowers sent by Utah athletics director Chris Hill.
She has been contacted by hundreds of media and sports associates.
All out of respect for someone who, for the last 25 years, has been doing her job the Holly way, not the Hollywood way.
I got a firsthand tutorial on what that means, several years ago. I had asked her to speak to a class on sports reporting I was teaching at the University of Utah, her alma mater. During the introduction, I suggested that, among other things, she might discuss whether athletes had treated her differently than her male counterparts.
She began by graciously pointing out that she's not a female sports reporter, she's a reporter.
It’s true — and a fine one at that.
Her knowledge of sports and love of the job has allowed her to cover many of the biggest events, including countless major regular-season and postseason college football games. She’s also a fixture at such events as the Women’s College World Series, the WNBA, college basketball and volleyball. Her resume also includes covering World Cup soccer.
None of this came by accident. For one thing, she served two internships at ESPN. When she applied, her interviewer told her it was unusual for someone to come all the way from Utah for an unpaid position. Most of the applicants, she was told, were from near the Bristol headquarters, so they could live at home.
But Holly would have come from Fiji, if necessary.
At some point, her boss moved up the company ladder and hired her as an ESPN regular, this time with excellent pay. Holly told my college class to be willing to do the groundwork, which can often be inconvenient and downright complicated.
I got my first serious view of Holly’s work ethic in the early 1990s, long before her career as a television personality emerged. The Jazz were becoming a contender, and she was straight out of college, working part time for KSL radio. Locker rooms had long been opened to both genders, so that wasn’t an issue. But she wouldn’t have been waylaid either way.
“She was a sports encyclopedia,” said KSL radio’s Amanda Dickson. “None of us was surprised when her career took off, she was always there and willing to jump in. When I saw her success, I like everyone else, felt so pleased and proud.”
She became a regular sideline reporter for ESPN in 1998, which could have been before, after or during her employment by Fox 13, the Blue and White Network, Fox Sports, KBYU, KUED, 1320-KFAN, the Davis County Clipper, the Daily Utah Chronicle and anyone else that needed an informed report.
She was always finding work.
Though she kept the erratic hours of all sports media, that didn’t dampen her enthusiasm; it sparked it. She never complained. She has handled her fight with cancer with equal determination and class, if her tweets of gratitude and comments via ESPN are an indication.
In Deitsch’s SI piece, he asked her about the “hot factor” of young, attractive candidates replacing older ones in a visual medium. She acknowledged it exists, but true to her style, stayed positive, noting that youth doesn’t mean a lack of talent.
At the same time, she set the record straight, just as she did in my class.
“The quality of work,” she said, “should always be the top consideration. I don’t know if it is but I hope it is.”
In her case, it always has been.
Email: rock@desnews.com; Twitter: @therockmonster; Blog: Rockmonster Unplugged