Lauren Reynolds ’02, Behind the News at ESPN

When did you decide you’d combine your passion for sports and journalism?

I realized in high school, working for our student paper, that I loved the immediacy of journalism. It was so cool to work on something and see it in print the next day. It’s the first draft of history (and fittingly, I went on to be a history major at Hamilton). The thing I’ve always loved about sports journalism is that we can tell any story through the prism of sports — political, social, human — and reach the broadest audience.

What was your path to VP of Content at ESPN?

I was lucky enough to meet Steve Wulf ’72, then the executive editor of ESPN the Magazine, through the Hamilton Career Center. Steve gave me the best advice: Go down south, to any newspaper that would hire me, and in two to three years, ESPN or Sports Illustrated would come calling. And he nailed it! I spent two-and-a-half years at a small paper in North Carolina before being hired as a copy editor for ESPN.com.

Since starting at ESPN in 2005, I’ve had a multitude of jobs, largely covering college sports, and now get to lead all of our sport-specific editors and reporters, as well as a team for SportsCenter charged with bringing in all content from the field.

Was it tough breaking into the field at ESPN as a woman?

I think being a woman actually helped open doors — especially at the time, there weren’t many of us. What was, and sometimes still is, hard is being the only woman in the room. For the majority of my career, I was on teams where there were more men named Dave than women! I’m thrilled that it’s changed. On my team, our executive editor is a woman. The leads of our NFL, MLB, and NHL/Olympics teams are women. It’s one of my proudest accomplishments — having helped hold the door open for other women.

How did you move up the ranks at ESPN?

I always focused on taking jobs that would teach me the most, which led to a really diverse skill set and network. I wasn’t afraid of taking a higher role in a lower-profile sport, so I was able to get valuable experience managing teams and setting strategies at earlier points in my career.

What does a typical day look like for you?

It’s different every day, and that’s what I love … At the heart of every day, it’s about trying to find the right stories to tell, the right people to tell them, and then making sure we’re coordinating across ESPN — all of our platforms (linear, digital, social, radio, podcasts) — so that the story can find as big of an audience as possible.

Meet people taking Hamilton’s motto to heart as they discover and explore their passions in an effort to make valuable contributions on College Hill and beyond.

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What’s your favorite sport?

My answer, prior to having kids, was to watch: football; to play: lacrosse. Now that I am the proud mom of two soccer players and ski racers, it’s definitely watching them compete.

What do you think the meteoric rise in popularity of women’s basketball and Caitlin Clark mean for women’s sports in general?

It’s been incredible to watch. I graduated from high school the same year that the WNBA launched. I was at the Liberty’s first game. The first major event I worked at for ESPN was the women’s basketball tournament. Women’s basketball is the classic “overnight sensation, 30 years in the making.” It’s been incredible to see the way that Caitlin Clark has captured the nation’s attention, but perhaps, more importantly, it’s not just Caitlin. Finally, incredible women are getting their due. With an Olympics this year, I think the story of the year will be the growth of women’s sports.