Storm, Hannah 1962-

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STORM, Hannah 1962-

PERSONAL: Born Hannah Storen, June 13, 1962, in Oak Park, IL; changed on-air name to Hannah Storm in 1983; daughter of a sports executive; married Dan Hicks; children: three daughters. Education: University of Notre Dame (political science and communications), 1983.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—c/o NBC, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112.

CAREER: Sportscaster. Worked at a variety of television stations in Houston, TX, Corpus Christi, TX, and South Bend, IN; weekend anchor and sports reporter, WPCQ-TV, Charlotte, NC, 1988-99; sportscaster, Cable News Network (CNN), 1989-92; sportscaster, NBC Sports, 1992—.

AWARDS, HONORS: Gracie Allen Award, 1999, for coverage of NBA Finals and World Series.

WRITINGS:

Go Girl! Raising Healthy, Confident, and Successful Girls through Sports, Sourcebooks (Naperville, IL), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Hannah Storm is a sportscaster with NBC Sports. She earned a degree in political science and communications at Notre Dame University, and began her broadcasting career by working as anchor, reporter, and studio host at a variety of radio and television stations in Texas, Indiana, and North Carolina. In an article in Texas Monthly, she told Brian D. Sweany that her name was originally Hannah Storen, but that at a radio station in Corpus Christi, they changed her on-air name to Hannah Storm, which she has used ever since. She also wrote that while working for this station, she had to get to work early because the station was located in a rural area and she had to spend a great deal of time chasing cows away from the front gate so she could get in. "Cows do not scare easily so I would have to honk my horn and yell and moo and curse," she said. "It was just hysterical."

Storm became interested in sports through her father, who was a sports executive. He worked for various teams, so the family moved all over the United States, following his jobs. He was commissioner of the American Basketball Association, and was also involved with the National Basketball Association, major league baseball, professional tennis, and football. When he realized that she was interested in a broadcasting career in sports, he encouraged her to pursue it. Her mother also told her to follow her dreams, even if it meant making frequent moves to go where the work was.

After working at many local stations, Storm spent three years with Cable News Network (CNN), where she anchored CNN Sports Tonight, as well as host of CNN Sports Saturday and CNN Sports Sunday.

Storm joined the NBC network in 1992 and made her first broadcast from the All-England Tennis Championships at Wimbledon. She has since worked on most of NBC's major broadcasts, including the Olympics, NBA Finals, and the World Series. With Jim Lampley, she was cohost of the late-night shows for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. In 1994 she was the primary sideline reporter for NBC Sports coverage of the NFL. Storm periodically substituted for Bob Costas as host of NBA Show-time, and in 1997 she was made full-time host when Costas left. This made Storm the first woman ever to work as a solo anchor of a major league season's network broadcasting.

Storm also hosted pre-game shows for the 1995, 1997, and 1999 World Series, and worked as a reporter for the 1994 Major League All-Star Game. She also hosted postgame shows for the 1997, 1998, and 1999 NBA Finals and the 1997 and 1999 World Series on CNBC. She was the top play-by-play reporter for the first season of the Women's NBA in 1997.

Storm is the author of a book, Go Girl! Raising Healthy, Confident, and Successful Girls through Sports. Storm, who has three daughters, provides suggestions for keeping girls interested in sports as they grow up, as well as information on nutrition, coaching, injuries, sporting behavior, weight, and other topics. According to Storm, participation in sports has many benefits for girls, including better physical health, better academic performance, and better emotional health. In Booklist, Gillian Engberg praised the wealth of information in the book, as well as Storm's motivational ability. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that the book would be very useful to parents who are not physically active but who want their children to be involved in athletic activities.

In Cybergrrl.com, Storm told Lisa Gill, "Women are always excited to see another woman on the air, talking about sports! They see me as a trailblazer and can relate to me." She also said, "I think it is very important for young women, and men for that matter, to follow their dreams, even if they are interested in a nontraditional field."