Who We Are: Penn State Hosted By LaVar Arrington With Guest Amanda Gifford. I'm Living A Dream Pt. 1

Amanda Gifford Lockwood (0:00)

It was always my goal from high school to work at ESPN, to work in sports. There was another person I went to school with in high school who we'd all always joke back and forth with, hey, we're going to work at ESPN someday.

SPEAKER_2 (0:15)

This is Who We Are, presented by the Penn State Alumni Association. And now, here's your host, Penn State Alumni and College Football Hall of Famer, LaVar Arrington.

LaVar Arrington (0:27)

I got Amanda Gifford Lockwood with me today on the show, and she's the SVP of production at ESPN.

She's the person behind College Game Day. She's an Emmy Award winning Penn State grad. Welcome to Who We Are, Amanda.

Amanda Gifford Lockwood (0:48)

Thank you. It's a privilege to be here and talking to a legend like you.

SPEAKER_2 (0:52)

Come on, stop.

LaVar Arrington (0:53)

You're the legend. And let's talk about this. So, this is all about Penn State, the community of Penn State, what it represents and celebrating being an alumni while encouraging those to think about how important it is and crucial it is to join and be a part of our community and contribute as an alumni.

When you were in school before ESPN became your reality and you have that beautiful backdrop and window and your office has a window, with the wards sitting there by the way. But before all of that, somebody had to believe in Amanda. Someone had to give Amanda that opportunity to learn and to prove what she was capable of doing. Who was that person and can you give me some understanding on what it was that you had to do while becoming who you will ultimately become?

Amanda Gifford Lockwood (2:07)

There are many people that I have to thank for my career at Penn State while in college. But a person that comes to mind right off the bat is Steve Jones. I was fortunate that the voice of Penn State football, Penn State basketball, everyone knows Steve Jones if you've connected with Penn State athletics. When in college, I was fortunate enough to be part of the initial class at college communications that partook in the sports journalism certificate program. As part of that program, we had a class with Steve Jones to talk about radio broadcasts. We had a class of sports information with Mike Foreman. We had various classes that really just dealt with sports journalism, rather than regular journalism classes in the college communications. I'll never forget, it was a weekly class with Steve, three hours long. I think we spent the first two and a half hours just talking about what's going on with the football team that week, which was great insight and a lot of fun to hear about. Then we would do radio clips. We would do play-by-play. He would critique us on what we were doing.

It was a small class, so you get a lot of one-on-one time and learning from a legend like him was fantastic. I just talked to him about what can I do to continue to grow in this space, in this industry, and he's like, hey, why don't you come do some radio reports after football games, after basketball games at my radio station at that time was 3WZ.

I worked after athletic events, got out to the station and cut some highlights and did some voice work and put together packages, and Steve and I still keep in touch to this day. So there's so many people that think about Penn State, but learning from someone like Steve when you first start a program like that was definitely inspirational.

LaVar Arrington (4:04)

Give me a station identification. Let me hear.

Amanda Gifford Lockwood (4:07)

Oh boy, 3WZ. I can't remember what the actual numbers were, so it's a long time ago.

LaVar Arrington (4:16)

You got to give me the 3WZ station identification voice.

Amanda Gifford Lockwood (4:21)

Amanda Gifford for 3WZ, how's that?

LaVar Arrington (4:25)

Yeah. 3WZFM State College.

Amanda Gifford Lockwood (4:30)

There you go.

LaVar Arrington (4:32)

Anyways, I like that.

So you get your start in radio, you're able to grow. How, because I know how much work goes into information gathering, putting it together, and then being able to give a coherent report. How hard was it for you to do it? You said you did it after the games, which means you were pulling late nights to get things done. You're probably a one army crew. You didn't have a whole bunch of people helping you. Why you? Why did Steve Jones choose you?

How were you able to navigate getting all of that work done? Because you did multiple sports.