Lindsay McCormick, Sports Broadcaster

We caught up with sports broadcaster Lindsay McCormick on the red carpet of the Alliance for Women in Media Southern California’s 57th Annual Genii Awards. Lindsay is a sideline reporter for ESPN basketball and stars in the upcoming film “The Bounce Back.”

WTM: How’d you get involved with Alliance for Women in Media?

LM: For me being in the industry as a female for the past ten year, this Alliance is everything. You get to know other women that have gone through the same things you have gone through, struggled with the same areas you have. It’s nice to be able to pick all of their brains and realize you’re not alone in this industry.

WTM: Have you had any mentors along the way?

LM: I would say having mentors is one of the keys to success. Linda Cohn was a woman that reached out to me when I was an intern at ESPN. I am still so enamored by that. That someone of her status, in my mind one of the greatest sports broadcasters ever to ever grace ESPN, would come up to a little intern and say, “If you ever have any questions, let me know.”

My mom was also a big mentor for me. My mom always stressed the importance of career and finding yourself before finding a man. Eventually when you’re on your journey to figure out who you are, and your journey to figure out your career, that all the other stuff will fall into place.

WTM: How’d you get into sports?

LM: I love sports! My grandpa had a short stint in the NFL, and then went on to do engine coolant technology for NASCAR. My brother worked for Talladega. My whole family’s obsessed!

WTM: What’s it like being a woman in the sports industry?

LM: There’s definitely advantages to being a female in the sports industry; there’s also disadvantages. One of those disadvantages would be fans seeing a woman on TV and immediately assuming OK, well she didn’t play in the NFL, so maybe she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. So, for me I came into this industry with a game plan. I’m going to do things like radio and writing for different publications such as ESPN The Magazine, Esquire, and build up that credibility so that when I am on TV people can’t say, oh she just hired for her looks, or something that didn’t have to do with credibility.

WTM: We’ve heard you work with a lot of volunteer organizations.

LM: There’s a lot of organizations I’m really passionate about. I love #HashtagLunchbag. We meet together once a month in order to put together lunch bags for homeless and then we distribute them around downtown LA, Santa Monica area. I also worked a lot with Cherished Feet, which is an organization based out of New York. They collect shoes and unlike some other organizations where they collect shoes and drop them off in different countries, they actually hand-deliver them to everybody. And you don’t realize how precious shoes are until you don’t have them. And what a difference they make in some of these people’s lives. Music Beats Hearts. My friend Eli and Lokai started that one. They distribute iPods to different cancer patients when they’re going through their treatment, and they load up the different iPods with inspirational songs. The healing power of music is incredible. They’re all organizations that make me really excited.

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