Jimmy Roberts

For other people named Jimmy Roberts, seeJimmy Roberts (disambiguation).

Jimmy Roberts(born 1957) is a sportscaster forNBC Sports.Roberts joined NBC in May 2000 after serving as a sports reporter for almost 12 years atESPNandABC Sports,winning Emmy awards throughout his career.

Early life and career

Roberts grew up inWhite Plains,New York.His father, Ralph, traded securities with the investment firm Moore & Schley in New York.His mother, Betty, taught first grade at the Ridgeway School in White Plains.

While attendingWhite Plains High School,Roberts captained the varsity lacrosse team.He was also the school's morning announcer and occasionally wrote columns for his high-school newspaper,The Orange.

Roberts went on to study at theUniversity of Maryland, College Park.During his time at Maryland, Roberts worked at the popular campus hangout R.J. Bentley's, where one of his Emmy Awards is now displayed.While still at college, he began work at ABC Sports as a production runner, supporting the outside broadcast team as they covered the lacrosse national championship for “Wide World of Sports.”

ABC, ESPN and NBC Sports

Roberts' career has substantially been with NBC as a sports presenter. He began with the network briefly as a production assistant at the1980 Lake Placidgames.He covered thespeed skatingcompetition and, witnessingEric Heiden's record five individual gold medals, came to regard it as history's greatest athletic achievement.Though he regardsDan Jansen's 1,000 metre win at the1994 Winter Olympicsas the most memorable sporting event he has televised.

His first roles as a sports TV writer and associate producer were with ABC, underHoward Cosell,on “SportsBeat,” a 30-minute investigative program. His work won him his first Emmy Award in 1984.He left the network to joinESPN.Having them sent an audition tape, he was hired by John Walsh who was runningSportsCenter.The first sporting event he presented was the heavyweight championship bout betweenMike TysonandMichael Spinksin 1988.He became the cable channel's main presenter for boxing, and golf, for the next ten years.

In 1999, NBC approached Roberts as they needed a presenter for the upcoming2000 Olympic Gamesin Sydney.In this time, he became known as an essayist with a sense of story, remembered for his Olympic reports onEric the Eeland other idiosyncratic sports personalities.

He has remained with the network ever since, hosting golf coverage onNBCand itsGolf Channel.Other NBC assignments over the years for Roberts include hosting the halftime show forNotre Damefootball,being one of the main anchors for NBC's weekend sports updates, anchoring the network's coverage of theFrench Open,and worked as a field reporter for NBC'scoverageof the2000 American League Championship Series.He has also reported onhorse racingfor NBC.Roberts hosted and narrated theOutdoor Life Network's coverage of the 2005Dakar Rally.

In presenting the2024 Summer Olympicsfrom Paris for NBC, Roberts had covered 20Olympic Gamesover his broadcasting career.Roberts has been honoured with 15Emmy Awardsin this time, along with Lincoln Werden Award for golf writers, in 2023.

Other work

In April 2009, Roberts published his first book,Breaking the Slump,which detailed the struggles of many famous golfers, includingJack Nicklaus,Arnold Palmer,George Herbert Walker Bush,and others and how they found their way through the inevitable challenges that plague anyone who plays the game.In 2022, Roberts co-authored “No One Wins Alone” with NHL hall of famer Mark Messier.The book was a memoir about Messier’s career which focused on leadership.

Personal life

Roberts's father, Ralph, had been a US soldier, serving in the regiment which liberated the French town ofFarébersviller.The story of the battle was narrated by Jimmy Roberts in a special feature for NBC, which he described as "the best thing I've done."

In 1994, Roberts married Sandra Mayer, a producer forTodayandNightlineat NBC.The couple have lived inRyeinWestchester County, New Yorksince then, raising three sons.

Roberts' sister-in-law, Debbie Mayer, worked in the south tower on the 56th floor at New York City'sWorld Trade Center.Immediately afterAmerican Airlines Flight 11(the first aircraft of theSeptember 11, 2001, attacks) struck the north tower, Mayer began going downstairs to leave the building. She had gotten to the 29th floor when the second aircraft struck, hitting the building she worked in. However, Mayer escaped safely before the towers collapsed.

Roberts told of the ordeal toUSA Today:

We had a couple of very anxious hours. My wife couldn't get through to Debbie. Finally, she went to her Manhattan apartment to wait for her. And she found her there. Turns out when the first explosion occurred in Building 1, Debbie started down the stairs. She had made it to the 29th floor when the building was shaken when the second plane hit. She was terrified but made it out.