USF Magazine

"Ann Liguori Passion on Ice"
By Jacque Bishop

SNOW – MORE snow than anyone could remember – flew over Nagano, Japan, in February. It buried the mountains, obliterated downhill ski runs and left restless Olympians to watch the skies and wait – for three days. In the heart of the mountains, at a tiny bed-and-breakfast, USF alumna and veteran sportscaster Ann Liguori waited, too. "It was just an amazing experience," says Liguori, who covered Alpine skiing for CBS Radio during the 1998 Winter Games.

A 1982 graduate of USF's School of Mass Communications, Liguori grew up in Brecksville, Ohio, in the midst of the snow belt. "But," she says, "let me tell you: I saw more snow in my three weeks in Japan than I did in seventeen years in Ohio!" In her 15-year career, Liguori has been broadcaster, commentator, manager of her own production company and – most recently – author.

She visited USF in February to sign copies of her first book, A Passion for Golf: Celebrity Musings about the Game. But it is radio, says Liguori, that is "the ultimate challenge, the most intimate medium" – and it is one in which she excels. "The experience has to be authentic," Liguori explains, "because you are the audience's eyes and ears."

Her own Olympic experience, as she describes it, could hardly have been more authentic.

"Up in the mountains, outside Nagano, there was some culture-shock… Very few people there speak English, so we got to see the real Japan. We stayed with a Japanese family, and we all really bonded… The mother cooked us gourmet meals, and each day the whole family would line up out front to wave goodbye to us. They were so gracious, so kind…" Meanwhile, out on the slopes things were anything by dull. "During the slalom – when Alberto Tomba was making his run – the broadcast booth began shaking all of a sudden. It rattled us around for about 7 seconds… Sure enough, it was an earthquake – a 5.0!" No one was hurt but it was, says Liguori, a once-in-a-lifetime feeling.

Asked if the Olympics, in spirit or quality, are declining, Liguori replies that it was the media – no the Olympics – that struggled in Nagano. "the Olympics I saw were as vibrant as ever. The television coverage had problems, because, of course, there's a 14 hour time-difference. But radio is live! I mean, ten minutes after Picabo Street won the gold, I had an interview with her, and 10 minutes later it was on the air. That's what's so exciting – and challenging – about radio."

While women's sports continue to grow in popularity and esteem, women in the sports news business are still rare. Liguori, who has now covered five Olympic Games, says she is, to her knowledge, "the only woman who's been part of radio coverage in the last five years – regardless of what network held the rights." In other words, the situation is pretty much the same, everywhere. "We still," Liguori says, "have a long way to go."

With A Passion for Golf already in its second printing, Liguori is at work on another book whose contents she's not allowed to publicize – yet. With all of her radio commitments, when does she have time to write? "Well most people would take a leave to do it, but not mea. I don't do anything I don't really want to do, so I'll just make time for it… I have a passion for all the things that I do."