Holly Rowe Receives 2023 Curt Gowdy Electronic Media Award

SALT LAKE CITY -The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame awarded Utah native Holly Rowe with the 2023 Curt Gowdy Electronic Media Award.

The award was established by the Board of Trustees to single out members of the electronic and print media for outstanding contributions to basketball.

Congratulations to 2023 Curt Gowdy Electronic Media Award receipt, @sportsiren. #GowdyAward pic.twitter.com/KEpIGROon1

— Basketball HOF (@Hoophall) February 17, 2023

Rowe has been a Reporter & Play-by-Play Commentator for ESPN for over two decades.

Holly Rowe accepted the award alongside Marc Spears, a senior NBA writer for ESPN.

Congrats to @MarcJSpears and @sportsiren, this year’s Curt Gowdy Award recipients for print media and electronic media.#NBAAllStar @Hoophall pic.twitter.com/wkpTsJC7Qf

— Kevin John (@heykevinjohn) February 17, 2023

Utah Jazz’s Holly Rowe

Holly Rowe became the first woman to sit in on the local television broadcast as the team’s top analyst in late 2021.

With regular analyst Thurl Baily attending his son’s wedding, Rowe stepped into the gig alongside play-by-play voice Craig Bolerjack.

While Rowe became the first woman to fill in on the local broadcast as an analyst, she said in an interview with The Zone Sports Network that she didn’t get into sports broadcasting with the sole purpose of breaking new social ground.

I’ve never conscientiously been like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna do this, because…'” Rowe said, “I’m just a sports fan.”

Before joining the Jazz broadcast team, Rowe had worked her way up the broadcast ladder to the highest ranks in the business. After attending BYU and the University of Utah, Rowe started at ESPN in 1997 and has become the company’s premier reporter during college football and basketball games.

All-Star weekend activated! @nba #nbacrossover #slc pic.twitter.com/ppqEngSlwx

— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) February 16, 2023

Though her work has carved out a new space in the industry for women looking to make a living in broadcasting, Rowe said she didn’t see her gender as the main focal point for her career.

“I’m a football fan, I’m a basketball fan, I’m a football reporter, I’m a basketball reporter. I never have let my gender make decisions for me.”

But while gender hasn’t been the determining factor in what she can and can’t accomplish in her career, she’s not naive to the fact that she’s a role model to up-and-coming women in the field.

Chandler Holt is a Digital Sports Producer for KSLSports.com, specializing in all things basketball and football. Follow Chandler on Twitter at @ChandlerHoltKSL.

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