Lon McEachern
| Lon McEachern | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1956/1957 (age 67–68) Memphis, Tennessee, United States |
| Residence | Santa Clara, California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A. 1980) |
| Occupation | Sports commentator |
| Known for | Coverage of World Series of Poker |
| Style | Play by play |
| Home town | Corte Madera, California, United States |
| Television | ESPN |
| Spouse(s) | Carol McEachern (m. 1981) |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Matthew Wood (nephew) |
Lon McEachern (pronounced "ma-CAIR-en", born 1956/1957)[1] is an American sports commentator most known for his hand-by-hand commentary of the World Series of Poker on ESPN. He is known as the "voice of poker".[2][3][4]
Early life and education
McEachern was born in Memphis, Tennessee, one of four children.[5] His family later relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and McEachern was raised in Corte Madera in Marin County until the age of 19.[1][5][6] He attended Redwood High School and played baseball while a student.[6] He was teammates with Buddy Biancalana in his senior year and graduated in 1975.[6]
McEachern attended Santa Barbara City College and was a baseball teammate of future-MLB player Jesse Orosco.[7] He later attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated in 1980 with a B.A. in communications.[1][5] While enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, he worked at the campus radio station KCSB-FM.[7]
Career
Out of college, McEachern worked radio at KTMS, the former home of another UCSB graduate in Jim Rome, before entering the television industry with KCOY-TV.[7] He moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1990's to work at KGO-TV and KPIX-TV.[6] He also freelanced for ESPN, including covering play-by-play of the X Games.[5][6][7] By 2002, McEachern had left the television industry.[1][5]
In 2002, ESPN reached out to McEachern, who was working as a mortgage banker at the time, to cover poker.[1][5][6] He was brought back in 2003 alongside Norman Chad for the 2003 World Series of Poker.[1][5][6] The tournament was won by Chris Moneymaker and led to the Moneymaker effect and a corresponding surge in poker's popularity.[8] McEachern continued as a mortgage banker for nearly five years, doing poker coverage for ESPN on the side.[5] He's covered every World Series of Poker event since ESPN acquired the broadcasting rights as of the 2002 WSOP.
Personal life
McEachern married Carol Czyzewski, a fellow UC Santa Barbara alumna, in 1981 and has two children.[9][10] His nephew, Matthew Wood, is a sound engineer for Skywalker Sound and has worked on numerous Star Wars films.[11]
References
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- ESPN biography
- Lon McEachern at the Internet Movie Database
- Lon McEachern on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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