What Did Rece Davis Do Before Joining ESPN? A Look at His Broadcasting Career.

Over more than three decades with ESPN, Rece Davis has become notable as one of the voices and faces covering the biggest games in sports. Davis is a host of College Game Day and has brought stablity and consistency to the always-evolving spectacle. But while Davis seemed to pop out of nowhere to ESPN in the mid-1990s, his background likely helps inform his SEC and Big Ten heavy coverage of college football.

Rece's Roots

William Laurece Davis was born in Chicago in the mid-1960s, but grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The northern Alabama town is a mecca for pop music thanks to the Muscle Shoals Studios and FAME Studios that hosted artists as diverse and significant as Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. With proxymity to Alabama, Auburn, and Tennessee, the area is also passionate about college football.

Davis graduated from the University of Alabama in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the school of communications in news and public affairs. Davis began working for local television and radio as early as 1983. After his graduation from college, Davis moved to WRBL-TV in Columbus, Georgia, where he was the sports anchor and sports director from 1988 to 1993. A mid-sized city tucked just inside Georgia's western border, Columbus is closer to Auburn than to Atlanta or to the University of Georgia's campus at Athens.

Heading Outside the South

Davis did leave the south in 1993, moving on to be a sports reporter and anchor at WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan. Flint is close outside Detroit and nearly equidistant from Big Ten stalwarts Michigan and Michigan State. Davis spent two years in Michigan before he headed to Connecticut and ESPN in 1995.

Rece Rules at ESPN

Davis's three-plus decades at ESPN are well-reported, as he has become one of the standard-bearers of the college sports media world. Davis has won six Sports Emmys for best weekly studio show for College GameDay since he took over as host in 2015. He has held a similar role with the basketball version of the show since its creation in 2005.

Davis's wife, Leigh, graduated from Auburn and the two met while both were working for WRBL in Georgia. The two have a son and a daughter, with the son, Christopher, having played basketball at Princeton and Duke. Rece has credited Leigh with helping him reach his ultimate professional goals at ESPN, as he admitted, "I didn't know what I was doing."

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