Rob Stone

Soccer and College Football Commentator    |    Photos

Rob Stone

Rob Stone joined ESPN in June 1997 as a professional soccer commentator. He now covers a variety of events, and since 1999, he has served as a college football sideline reporter. In 2010, he added college football play-by-play to his role and covers several conferences, including the SEC, Big 10, ACC, BIG EAST, Pac-12 and MAC, along with several bowl games each season.

Stone has also hosted the new SEC Network studio show that aired live during the college football pregame for ESPN’s regionally syndicated coverage of the SEC, part of ESPN and the SEC’s landmark 15-year television rights agreement.

Since 1998, Stone also has served as a sideline reporter for select MLS and U.S. Soccer telecasts on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, covering the last four FIFA World Cups and hosting 12 MLS Cups. In 2006, he served as both a reporter and play-by-play announcer at the World Cup in Germany.

During World Cup ’98 in France, Stone traveled the country and filed daily reports for ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 on the offbeat and behind-the-scenes sites of the world’s most popular sporting event. He also provided reports and features from France ’98 for World Cup 2Night. In Korea/Japan ’02, Stone served as host of World Cup 2Night on ESPN2 and during the pregame, halftime and postgame segments.

In addition to college football and professional soccer, Stone’s contributions at ESPN include coverage of men’s and women’s college basketball; NCAA tennis; national spelling bee; boxing; skiing; darts; horse racing; the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest; Great Outdoor Games; college soccer; track & field; and bowling – he has been the lead announcer for the PBA for the past two years.

Stone came to ESPN from WTOG-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla., where he served as weekend sports anchor and sports reporter from 1995-97. In addition, he reported for the Tony Dungy Show and the Sam Wyche Report, and was chief reporter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Countdown to Kickoff pregame show.

During the 1996 and 1997 MLS seasons, Stone also was an analyst for Tampa Bay Mutiny matches on SportsChannel Florida.

Stone began his television career at ESPN as a production assistant. From 1992-93, he worked on SportsCenter, Outside The Lines and College GameDay. From ESPN, Stone went to WFXL-TV in Albany, Ga., as a weekend sports anchor/sports reporter (1993-94) and sports director (1994-95).

The Simsbury, Conn., native graduated in 1991 from Colgate with a bachelor’s degree in English. He was an all-state and all-conference soccer player as a midfielder for the Red Raiders, and captained the squad in his senior year.

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