Sharlene Hawkes is not your average woman sportscaster.
Instead of wanting to follow in the footsteps of former and current ESPN anchors Gayle Gardner and Robin Roberts, Hawkes says, ”My family comes first.”
A Mormon with Miss America looks (the 1985 winner), Hawkes is taking her 3 1/2-month-old baby and her mother to Los Angeles this week while she helps cover the U.S. Olympic Festival for ESPN.
While her ESPN work as a TV personality has been first-rate-whether hosting ”Scholastic Sports America” or reporting quirky features for
”College GameDay”-Hawkes says it`s strictly a part-time job.
”I really enjoy being a full-time mom,” says Hawkes, who joined the cable network after graduating from Brigham Young in 1988. ”I always wanted to be a full-time mom. So as long as I`ve got little kids around, that`s my priority.”
And her relationship with ESPN executives allows her that freedom.
More Top Picks Best Polarized Sunglasses For Golfers
”I want to work for ESPN for as long as they`ll have me,” she adds.
”I`ve just been thrilled with this situation where they`re able to accommodate my goals and work me in wherever they need me.”
Not exactly words to make Betty Friedan smile. But words Hawkes likes to live by, which is a reason she still lives in Utah and isn`t knocking on any major network`s doors.
”I`d have to put family as a No. 2 priority,” she says. ”And many of the networks like you to live in New York, which I don`t want to do. And they want you to work on Saturdays and Sundays, and I prefer not to work on Sundays unless I have to.”
– Wayne Larrivee has added another chore to his already busy schedule. The Bears` broadcaster for the past seven seasons, Larrivee will do play-by-play
(with Jim Grabowski returning to handle the color) on 10 of the 11 Illinois football games carried by WGN Radio this fall. Just last week, Larrivee was hired as the play-by-play man for the 30 Bulls games to be carried by WGN-Ch. 9.
Larrivee said Channel 9 officials came to him ”around the time of the
(NBA) Finals” and asked if he were interested in replacing Jim Durham because negotiations with Durham and his agent had reached an impasse. ”They (Channel 9) were very upfront about it,” Larrivee said. ”If he (Durham)
wanted the job, it was his. I certainly didn`t want to take the job away from Jim.”
Larrivee said outside of Nov. 2, there weren`t any conflicts between the Illini, the Bulls and the Bears. He opted for the Bulls game that night against the Bucks. ”The Bears dates actually work out pretty well,” he said. As for Durham`s firing, ”I was shocked the job opened up,” Larrivee said. ”I had just told my agent (Ellen Beckwith) to look for an NBA package out of town.”
– Bob Costas, who went on Chet Coppock`s WLUP-AM gabfest Monday night to clarify his remarks about Howard Cosell (”he should be to sportscasting what Walter Cronkite is to broadcasting, but he`s become such a mean, bitter person”), also took time to apologize for his postgame work on the Bulls`
championship.
”When I walked in (to the locker room), I knew I was in trouble,”
Costas told Coppock. ”There was no platform. On a platform, you`re removed from people jostling you. There was no stage manager. There were no commercials at all on the postgame show, so I couldn`t throw it to a commercial. At the same time, Marv Albert and Mike Fratello were ordered to take the perch to say goodbye to Pat Riley, who was leaving us.
”Producers were screaming in my ear `Get Michael Jordan` while I was interviewing Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. My mortal fear was leaving the air without hearing from Michael Jordan. I was doing the best I could to, in effect, produce the segment. I saw the tape when I got home. I appeared disinterested (in Pippen and Grant). If that was the impression I conveyed, I`m sorry.
”I left the locker toom feeling as low as I ever felt in my life. The
(Bulls`) supporting cast did not get its due.”
Said an NBC spokesman: ”In other (championship) locker rooms, the situation has been more under control than this one was. It certainly was not the best working conditions.”
– TVKO ”hopefully will be a part” of the Nov. 8 Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield heavyweight title bout, officials say. The pay-per-view outlet has an agreement with Holyfield`s promoters for the champ`s next fight, but ”the promoters have to work out their part of it first,” said a TVKO spokesman. TVKO`s next pay-per-view card is at 9 p.m. Friday, featuring Tony ”the Tiger” Lopez defending his IBF junior lightweight title against Lupe Gutierrez and two other bouts at a suggested $19.95. . . . Pete Rose talks about life during and after baseball and his gambling addiction in his first in-depth interview since his release from prison on ”Real Life with Jane Pauley” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on WMAQ-Ch. 5. Rose, not so coincidentally, has a part (as Ty Cobb) in an upcoming NBC movie about Babe Ruth. . . . Tuesday night`s All-Star Game on CBS had a 17.4 rating, the lowest-with the exception of last year`s rain-delayed contest (16.2)-rating in more than 15 years.
”There was no (U.S.) home market,” said a CBS spokesperson. ”And with the erosion of the TV audience, it`s like comparing apples and oranges.”
– Comings and goings: Mike Tirico, sports director for the CBS affiliate in Syracuse, joins ESPN`s ”SportsCenter” as an anchor/reporter starting at 1 a.m. Saturday. . . . Beth Ruyak leaves ABC Sports to join Gary Collins as co- host on the network`s ”Home” show starting Monday.