It might be the No. 1 sports activities community within the nation, however ESPN additionally has a shady aspect. From backstage affairs to allegations of assault and shock host departures (taking a look at you, Maria Taylor), ESPN has been by way of its share of scandals.

Nevertheless, it is not all drama. Regardless of the controversies, the community remained a trusted supply for sports activities information and residential to a few of the most spectacular sportscasters within the biz. Of us like Hannah Storm who joined ESPN in 2008 and has gone on to anchor “SportsCenter,” in addition to cowl a few of the greatest sporting occasions on the earth.

Almost 20 years into her time with ESPN, she’s nonetheless thriving and is a daily on-air fixture. Sure, she does have her share of haters – one Reddit consumer even began a thread in 2024 titled “Hannah Storm makes ESPN unwatchable” – however she additionally has loads of supporters. And but, regardless of her long-lasting profession, Storm’s life hasn’t simply been crammed with successes. Certainly, she’s confronted her share of hardships, each private {and professional}. These are the tragic particulars about ESPN anchor Hannah Storm.

To today, breaking out as a feminine journalist centered solely on sports activities is not any straightforward feat. Rachel Nichols’ rise to the highest of the sportscasting world was a battle and so was Hannah Storm’s. Because the ESPN anchor shared in a 1998 situation of Texas Month-to-month, she knew she needed to be a sportscaster from the second she graduated from Notre Dame in 1983, nonetheless, it proved to be an uphill battle. “There have been nearly no feminine sportscasters on the air,” she recalled in a 2011 essay for ESPN.

Regardless of submitting tons of of resumes, she solely acquired rejections, lots of them scathing. “I used to be informed every thing from ‘I am going to rent a lady to do sports activities over my useless physique’ to ‘My viewers won’t ever settle for a lady sportscaster,'” Storm wrote. Even so, she persevered by following some life-changing recommendation from her father, former NBA commissioner Mike Storen. Storen steered his daughter shift her focus from TV to radio (to start out, not less than) and he or she quickly accepted a proposal as a nighttime DJ at a tough rock station in Corpus Christi, Texas. She would spend six months there, gaining expertise and a brand new moniker, swapping Hannah Storen for Hannah Storm.

Storm then landed a gig in Houston as a weekday sportscaster – however solely after ready for the radio station’s program director within the foyer and forcing her resume on him. From there, she turned the primary feminine host of CNN Sports activities Tonight in 1989, ultimately becoming a member of NBC in 1992 and ESPN in 2008.

Hannah Storm was getting ready dinner for her household in 2012 when the on a regular basis exercise almost turned lethal. The sports activities anchor was utilizing a propane gasoline grill and when the flame out of the blue went out, she turned it off and again on once more. Correct use requires ready a couple of minutes for the gasoline to dissipate earlier than attempting to reignite the grill. Storm did not wait and, as she informed AP (by way of ESPN), “There was an explosion and a wall of fireside got here at me.” Her shirt was ablaze and he or she managed to take away it, however the flames continued, leaving her with second-degree burns on her chest and arms, in addition to first-degree burns on her face and neck. Her eyebrows, eyelashes, and half of her hair had been additionally singed off.

Storm was rushed to the hospital the place she acquired therapy within the Trauma and Burn Heart for the subsequent 24 hours. Regardless of the severity of the harm, she did not enable it to sluggish her down. Simply three weeks after the accident, Storm was again on the air, co-hosting ABC’s telecast of the 2013 Rose Parade. “I’ve coated occasions with army members who’ve been by way of loads worse than me,” she mentioned of the supply of her fortitude. “I stored pondering, ‘I can do that. I am lucky.'”

Hannah Storm wasted no time getting again to work following her terrifying propane gasoline grill accident. Nevertheless, her restoration was sluggish going. In 2018, 5 years after the explosion, the TV character informed Those that the extent of her accidents had really been graver than she initially let on. Along with her eyesight being broken, she additionally misplaced a small a part of her nostril. “It was very horrifying, extraordinarily painful, and a really tough restoration,” she confessed.

Ultimately, Storm’s hair grew again and her scars healed, however unintended effects continued. “I nonetheless should watch out once I exit within the solar,” she shared. “If there is a temperature change, my arms harm due to the harm brought on by the burns.” Being uncovered to warmth, whether or not within the bathe or outdoors, turns the burned areas into purple blotches. To not point out the psychological toll the incident took. As Storm revealed, she refuses to ever get close to a gasoline grill once more.

She did attempt to discover the constructive within the accident, nonetheless. Talking with Folks on its tenth anniversary in 2021, the anchor famous it pressured her to reassess life. “I feel that one of many issues that it did make me try this was everlasting was a slowdown,” she mused. “A part of the rationale I had that accident is I used to be speeding.”

Dropping a beloved colleague is tough sufficient, however Hannah Storm needed to say goodbye to 2 such pals in a yr – and had to take action on the air. In 2015, she was the one to inform “SportsCenter” viewers that 49-year-old anchor Stuart Scott had died following a protracted battle with most cancers. Calling him “our colleague, our good friend, and our inspiration,” Storm fought again tears as she recalled Scott’s spectacular 21-year profession with ESPN.

Only one yr later, in 2016, she needed to pay tribute to John Saunders who died unexpectedly at age 61. She once more fought again tears as she praised his almost 30-year stint with the community, calling Saunders “beneficiant and proficient and beloved.”

Talking with the New York Submit that very same yr, Storm opened up in regards to the hardship of creating such an announcement. “It is the 2 most tough issues I’ve ever achieved and exhausting to imagine,” she informed the outlet. “You discover out a couple of minutes earlier than you go on air, and I can not even describe the sensation.” That mentioned, Storm rapidly added that she was honored to have been trusted with the duty and hoped their households appreciated her heartfelt tributes.

Hannah Storm suffered one other well being scare in November 2023 when a routine mammogram proved to not be routine in any respect. Regardless of being screened repeatedly, feeling no lumps, and having no household historical past of breast most cancers, docs noticed one thing worrisome on Storm’s X-rays. She was despatched to do a follow-up ultrasound, after which a biopsy, which led to a stage zero breast most cancers analysis. “I used to be so shocked,” she informed Folks in 2024. “I actually had nothing that might’ve indicated that I had breast most cancers.”

Storm had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a situation during which the cells that line the milk ducts are cancerous, however haven’t unfold to any of the encompassing tissue. Unsurprisingly, she was afraid, however her physician assured her the analysis was not deadly. Days later, the anchor underwent a profitable lumpectomy which utterly eliminated the most cancers.

Following the ordeal, Storm shared her story with the general public to push girls to get common testing. Similar to Hoda Kotb who shared her heartbreaking expertise with most cancers and Katie Couric who was open about her analysis, Storm was candid about her most cancers. Writing for ESPN Entrance Row, she famous how 80 to 90 % of these identified with breast most cancers do not even have any pre-existing threat elements. “Make screening for cancers a precedence,” she inspired.

If there’s one one that had a useful quantity of affect on Hannah Storm’s profession it is her father, Mike Storen. “It is no shock that I ended up in sportscasting,” Storm as soon as wrote for ESPN. “I lived this world with my father.” Sharing an identical sentiment with TSN, she recalled, “From the time I used to be a child, I used to be at all times round sports activities due to my dad.”

Certainly, Storen was a extremely lauded sports activities exec and former ABA commissioner who handed on his love of assorted video games to his daughter. He was additionally there to supply recommendation and unwavering assist which might in the end assist her break by way of the glass ceiling as a feminine sportscaster.

Sadly, Storen died in 2020 at age 84 as a result of issues from most cancers. Paying tribute to her dad on Fb, Storm informed followers simply how a lot of an impression he had on her life. “He was inventive, larger-than-life, relentlessly constructive, a fierce chief, inspiring, a ahead thinker and above all, my biggest supporter,” she wrote. He additionally had a serious impression on her private life. “Most significantly, he set the instance for the form of father or mother I attempt to be for my ladies,” she praised.