Morris C. Davenport, B.A. ’79, is the senior vice president and general manager of ESPN Radio. He is responsible for all aspects of ESPN Radio content as well as distribution, advertising sales and marketing initiatives for ESPN Radio’s 700 affiliated stations and five owned stations.
Davenport, a communication major at WMU, was a member of the Bronco football team from 1975 to 1979. Upon graduation, he began his career as an account executive with WQLR-FM in Kalamazoo. In 1982, he was hired by ABC Sports as a production assistant assigned to Major League Baseball, college football, Wide World of Sports and boxing.
Three years later, Davenport joined ESPN as an associate producer and became a key force behind the network’s critically acclaimed NCAA men’s basketball tournament coverage and extensive women’s NCAA basketball tournament coverage. A short time later, he was promoted to producer and began to work extensively on ESPN’s college football coverage. After several other promotions, Davenport was named vice president of remote production in 2006 and assumed responsibility for the day-to-day administration of non-professional sports on ABC and ESPN.
He was appointed to his current position in August 2007 and is responsible for all aspects of ESPN Radio content, including talk programming, event play-by-play coverage, podcasts and other online content, commentators and production.
A two-time Emmy winner, Davenport received his first Emmy, and ESPN’s first, for his work on animation. His other honors include being named as one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Minorities in Cable” in 2007 by CableWorld Magazine.