Betsy Ross
PRESIDENT & FOUNDER
bross@gamedaypr.com
Emmy® award winning sports reporter Betsy M. Ross is president of Game Day Communications, a sports and entertainment communications firm based in Cincinnati and founded in 2002.
As one of the first women to break into national sports news, Ross most recently worked as an anchor at ESPN for five years. Before anchoring SportsCenter and ESPNews, Ross worked at NBC News Channel and Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate, WLWT‐TV, for seven years, where she covered the 1996 Presidential Election and Inauguration and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and Olympic trials.
She continues to be involved in sports broadcasting as play‐by‐play anchor for women’s college basketball for ESPN, Fox Sports and other national and regional outlets, and as a sports reporter for Cincinnati’s FOX 19. She won a regional Emmy® for her work on the broadcast of the Lauren Hill Mt. St. Joseph-Hilliard College basketball game at Xavier University in November 2014. She is also part of the crew for Junglevision during Cincinnati Bengals’ home games and handles the public address announcing for University of Cincinnati women’s basketball, soccer and lacrosse.
In October of 2010, her first book titled Playing Ball with the Boys: The Rise of Women in Men’s Sports was released to a national audience.
She teaches a master’s level course, Sports and PR, at Xavier University and most recently taught a Sports Journalism course in the Media School at Indiana University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Ball State and a master’s at the University of Notre Dame.
Favorite sports memory
Harry Oliver’s 51 yard field goal in 1980 that led Notre Dame over Michigan at Notre Dame Stadium as time expired.It’s true that the wind died down just as he kicked it. Ended up being friends with him years later. Good Moeller grad, event better person. RIP Harry O.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
I’d love to try “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” but it’s more often than not “Fire Down Below.”
Which is your favorite- Coffee, tea or pop?
It’s hard to believe I didn’t drink coffee until college, but that’s when most journalism majors take up the habit. I gave up driving a stick shift because I needed my morning coffee on my way to work.
Favorite book
My favorite book is one from my childhood, “Black Beauty,” the story of an English countryside horse told from the horse’s point of view. It sparked my love of reading and my love of words. The book was published more than 100 years ago but it is still a children’s favorite.
Favorite Broadway musical
I loved “Hamilton,” but my all-time favorite is “Phantom of the Opera.” Can’t beat the foreboding of that overture as a harbinger of the drama to come.