When tonight's master of ceremonies learned to read, it wasn't with Dick, Jane, Spot and that infamous red ball. However, there was a ball involved most of the time. Bob Stevens says he learned to read by reading the sports page of the newspaper. He loved writing and thought sportswriting would be his only calling. But from his first performance of broadcasting a Little League baseball game, he was hooked. 

Today, you'll find Bob anchoring and writing at the nationally renowned network, ESPN. Through his five-plus years at ESPN, he has written and hosted several ESPN programs: SportsCenter shows, the SportsWeekly show, several ESPN sports specialty shows, ESPN Classic Road Show, ESPN and ESPN-2 major league play-by-play . . . and he currently hosts The Golf Show, broadcast on ESPN radio. Stevens' versatility is what brought him to be the first ever ESPN sportscaster to appear on all three primary ESPN networks - hosting ESPNEWS, SportsCenter, and ESPN-2's NHL 2-Nite - all in the same week.

In between those beginning reading sessions of the sports page and ESPN, Steven's career actually started right here in Tulsa. He graduated from the University of Tulsa in 1977. While at TU, he put his performing talents to work announcing the TU games on the university's radio station, KWGS. Under the tutelage of Ken Greenwood, the communications department chairman, Stevens was encouraged and guided through the professional doors of KRMG, where he worked during his final college year.

At KRMG, Stevens took the former 30-minute sports talk show to an unheard of full hour. Four years later, he went on to work at KOTV as sports director from 1987-1990. There, he was voted "most popular sportscaster" in Tulsa Tribune's reader poll. He also won The Associated Press Award for the coverage of the University of Oklahoma's football scandal and for his chronicling of the Sooner Stampede to the former Soviet Union where 90 Oklahoma high school students traveled to help break down the Iron Curtain by playing the very first football game there.

In 1990, Stevens moved to Cleveland and worked at WEWS-TV as a weekend sports anchor (1990-94) and then as sports director (1994-96). While there, he received an Emmy Award in 1994 for his coverage of the opening day of Jacob's Field. He created Cleveland's first and very popular half-hour sports wrap-up show, Sports Sunday. And he was voted "most popular sportscaster" by sports talk radio WKNR fans.

It was in Cleveland that Stevens met his wife, Janet, who was a television morning show producer. They now have two daughters, Kimberly and Caroline, ages seven and five.

Stevens accepted a position at ESPN in October 1996 and was then hired as anchor for the newly acquired ESPNEWS. His most memorable assignment was being sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown the morning after Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run breaking Roger Maris' record, where Stevens actually handled the record-breaking bat and ball.