College football will sound a little more testosterone-filled this fall as ESPN announced that it has removed Pam Ward from its college football coverage.In 2000, Ward became the first woman to do play-by-play for nationally televised college football games and subsequently took more than a decade of guff from a male-dominated viewership.
Recently, Ward spent a lot of time calling games from the nonautomatic qualifying conferences and some of the lesser Big Ten games.
She wasn't the best announcer in college football, but she wasn't nearly the worst. That title perhaps belongs to Craig James, who also won't be back this fall with ESPN because of his campaign to be a Texas state senator.
That's not to say Ward didn't have her moments. Awfulannouncing.com often chronicled those moments on a weekly basis as well as other awful announcing blunders. The site gave out yearly awards called the "Pammies" named after Ward.
"For a decade, Pam has been a trailblazing voice on college football," ESPN's Mike Humes told SI.com's Richard Deitsch. "She will continue to be a big part of our coverage plans across multiple sports including college basketball, softball, the WNBA and more."
ESPN/ABC will still have at least one female announcer remaining in the rotation in Beth Mowins, who called Saturday afternoon games on ESPN2.
This has truly been a banner offseason for the college football fan. First Craig James, then a college football playoff, and now Ward? College football fans, rejoice at your good fortune.
