2001 Games (And Counting): A Sports Odyssey

Steve Basford is the play-by-play voice of multiple sports for Ohio Wesleyan University and is on the official statistics crew for Ohio State football. He got his start on February 8, 1975, by working the stats and providing some color commentary for a high school boys' basketball game broadcast on Time Warner cable TV in Columbus, Ohio. He Iogged his activity for that game on a sheet of notebook paper and has continued to log his games worked as a statistician, play-by-play broadcaster, color broadcaster, game reporter, public address announcer, timeout coordinator, and a parabolic microphone operator, while having to turn down an opportunity to work for a bull riding competition (!).

He worked his 2,001st game in 2021, with his gigs taking him to the New Jersey Meadowlands to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to Iowa City, Iowa, and points in between.

He has worked games for ESPN, NBC, the Big Ten Network, and the Ohio News Network, among others, working the stats for such sports figures as Bob Costas, Joe Theismann, Harry Kalas, Paul Warfield, Pat Hughes, John Gordon, Fred Taylor, Paul Maguire, Jimmy Crum, John Cooper, and Tara VanDerveer.