Dan Patrick is leaving ESPN on August 17th, after being with them for 18 years

[Guest oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]Patrick will leave ESPN on Aug. 17 after 18 years[/b][/size]
ESPN.com

Updated: July 9, 2007, 4:53 PM ET

BRISTOL, Conn. -- Dan Patrick is leaving ESPN.

Patrick, who has been with the network for 18 years, announced on his radio show Monday that he will appear on air for the last time Aug. 17. Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president for production, made a simultaneous announcement.


A news release said that the mutual agreement will allow Patrick to pursue new interests outside of ESPN.

The final week of Patrick's radio show, which started in 1999, will include a look back at memorable moments, interviews and guests.

"If there was animosity, I wouldn't be doing any radio shows after today," Patrick said on his show, adding, "I hope to be doing radio somewhere, somehow, down the road."

In a news release, Patrick said: "I feel privileged to have had this opportunity and I have extremely mixed emotions about leaving. With that said, I told ESPN that I believe it's time for me to try something different, something that will also be challenging and rewarding. While I'm not sure what that will be, I am grateful to ESPN for its willingness to allow me to pursue new endeavors."

Said Williamson: "Dan has accomplished so much over the past two decades at ESPN, and fans and newsmakers have turned to him for his steady and trusted approach. We wish him the very best."

Patrick was a "SportsCenter" anchor from 1989 to 2006, winning the National Sportscaster of the Year award from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 2000. He also received a Sports Emmy Award in the Studio Host category in 1998.

Patrick has also written the column "Outtakes" for ESPN The Magazine.[/quote]







[url="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2930637"]http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2930637[/url]

[BENGALS666]

[quote name='oldschooler' post='509090' date='Jul 9 2007, 06:38 PM'][url="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2930637"]http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2930637[/url][/quote]

Dan is awesome.. Good luck to him in whatever he does. ESPN will be that much lamer without him.

[Rumble In the Jungle]

what's the reason that he's leaving ?

[Guest WhoDeyForever]

[quote name='Rumble in the Jungle' post='509154' date='Jul 9 2007, 09:36 PM']what's the reason that he's leaving ?[/quote]

He said in the article that he wants to try different things.

[Nati Ice]

i wonder what hes going to do now

[Rumble In the Jungle]

this doesn't make sense!!! what job is he going to find thats better than ESPN ?

[JBandJoeyV]

Hes from soutwest ohio....maybe he wants a local job in cincy doing reds/bengals stuff?

[|Bengal Migration|]

[quote name='CJandRudiJ' post='509357' date='Jul 10 2007, 05:45 PM']Hes from soutwest ohio....maybe he wants a local job in cincy doing reds/bengals stuff?[/quote]
From Dayton, and a UD grad if I remember right....

He leaves only Peter Gammons behind as decent folk @ ESPN. That network is useless anymore. I don't blame him for leaving.

[Ben]

He probably wanted to report on sports. ESPN has become the MTV of sports broadcasting

[JC]

I think Kenny Mayne is pretty funny. They should do more segments with him.

[BengalsCat]

Hoenstly DP is my favorite broadcaster on ESPN. I hope he keeps doing radio. His show by far is my favorite

[Hooky]

[quote name='WhoDeyUK' post='509361' date='Jul 10 2007, 12:58 PM']From Dayton, and a UD grad if I remember right....

He leaves only Peter Gammons behind as decent folk @ ESPN. That network is useless anymore. I don't blame him for leaving.[/quote]

I remember when he was on WTUE when I was just out of high school,as you other old Dayton fuckers may remember also, using his real name, Dan Pugh. After looking it up to verify for my senile ass, his name is Daniel Patrick Pugh.

[|Bengal Migration|]

[quote name='Hooky' post='509425' date='Jul 10 2007, 10:02 PM']I remember when he was on WTUE when I was just out of high school,as you other old Dayton fuckers may remember also, using his real name, Dan Pugh. After looking it up to verify for my senile ass, his name is Daniel Patrick Pugh.[/quote]
Went looking up DP's bio (he's from Mason, not Dayton) I came across this tidbit on Wiki

[quote]Reigning champion of the Butler County (Ohio) 4-H Fair Pig Wrestling contest.[/quote]

Either this is funny as hell b/c it's true, or Olbermann had a nice edit of his Wiki page as a joke

[Jamie_B]

[Harmening]

Boy, he sure goes into great detail to support his opinions, doesn't he?
I wonder if he can talk without flapping his hands around?

[Go Tory Go!]

I think I'm gonna buy into the Kige Ramsey conspiracy theory.

[homerkid]

Yup, Dan Pugh is right here from Mason. My dad went to high school with him back in the 70's and were real good friends. We have a big ESPN banner autographed by him that says, "To Gary, The best athlete I never saw" or something like that, its a little faded out now. I think it was supposed to be a joke? I remember one day like 10 years ago he called our house to speak with my dad, but he was sleeping and my mom wouldn't wake him up. He was pissed. LMAO. oh well

[oldschooler]

Ahhhhh, this is why Dan Patrick is leaving ESPN . . .


[quote][size=5][b]Patrick buys into a vision[/b][/size]
[size=3][b]De Castro persuades former ESPN host to expand his brand[/b][/size]



When he walked into Jimmy de Castro's corner office at the John Hancock Center, Dan Patrick actually wondered: Is this real?

From 35 floors up, the views of Lake Michigan and Oak Street Beach seemed almost cartoonish.


"I honestly thought they had rented that space just for when I came in," Patrick said Monday. "It was like 'The Sting,' when they make it seem like they have a gambling parlor."

The view was real, all right. As was de Castro's intention—no, determination—to hire Patrick away from ESPN, where he was arguably its top personality for 18 years.

De Castro didn't become an industry leader by being timid.

"What struck me first and foremost about him was that he was not going to be told no," Patrick said. "And he was not going to fail."

De Castro is a modern-day Daniel Burnham—he makes no small plans. [b]His plan for Patrick, who is signed to a five-year deal, knows no bounds.[/b]

His new company, Content Factory, plans to distribute Patrick across nine platforms: AM/FM radio, satellite and HD radio, online, television, mobile, publishing, out-of-home video (i.e. screens at gas station pumps), retail and event marketing.

"They have a million ideas and a million directions," Patrick said. "At the end of the day, there's only one of me. I just want to make sure whatever we're doing, we're doing it as well as we can."

De Castro sold Patrick on his vision while the men, both 12-handicaps, dueled in March at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"I thought I was just there to play golf," Patrick recalled. "On the fifth hole he says to me: 'You should own your own name, your own brand.'

"I'm thinking, just give me the yardage to the hole. We talked the rest of the day and I did some due diligence on him."

De Castro, who co-founded radio giant Evergreen Media and later served as president of AOL Interactive Services, had strong connections with Bill Pugh, the program director for Sporting News Radio and Patrick's brother. (He was born Daniel Patrick Pugh.)

After edging out Patrick on the golf course, de Castro sent him a John Daly golf shirt. Why?

"It has 12 logos on it," de Castro said. "We told Dan: 'That's what ESPN is to you. You don't want to wear 12 logos. You want to wear Dan Patrick, and when we sell Budweiser here, you own it.' "

In other words, don't simply serve as a vehicle for ESPN to sell ads.

"He had been a paid employee," de Castro said. "Now he owns a percentage of the radio show."

[b]De Castro hopes to launch Patrick's new show in September. His dream date is Sept. 9, 11 days before the beginning of the fall radio book.[/b]

Distribution will be a challenge. De Castro said Content Factory plans to offer the show to ESPN radio stations, as far-fetched as that sounds. In Chicago, de Castro hopes Patrick will find a new home on WSCR-AM 670 or WCKG-FM 105.9, which broadcasts Bulls games.

[b]De Castro envisions Patrick adding perhaps political or entertainment elements to his radio show, [/b]with recurring guests such as Keith Olbermann, Rick Reilly and Reggie Miller.


"Dan will be free from scores and the other elements that are part of the ESPN brand," de Castro said. "Hopefully this will be a little more liberating, creatively speaking."

Bottom line, it will be in Patrick's hands. That's the essence of this deal.


And it was struck at the right time. Patrick said that after 18 years at ESPN, he felt stale. He first warned his bosses in January that he might seek a change. He and de Castro are grateful ESPN let him out of his contract with a year to go.

"I was up front with them," Patrick said. "They said: 'We need you to finish the NBA (season). After that (Executive VP) John Skipper said: 'You've earned the right [to leave].' He was great through the whole process."

And now?

"I'm excited about restarting a career," Patrick said.[/quote]


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