Linda Cohn's sportscasting career shaped by Long Island experiences

Linda Cohn was a teenager on Long Island when she received her first important lesson about tuning out her critics in order to follow her dream.

Cohn, ESPN’s legendary “SportsCenter” anchor, wanted to play ice hockey even though there were no girls league’s in the 1970s on Long Island. There was a boys team, however, at the now defunct Racquet and Rink in Farmingdale that let her join as a goalie.

“I was 15 and they only let me play with 8-year-olds,” Cohn remembered in an interview with Newsday Tuesday. “I would hear all the moms saying, ‘Who is she? What is she doing here?’

“Wearing a goalie mask, it helped me hide how I was feeling and block out all the noise so to speak. It prepared me for later on being in the boys club and what turned out to be an amazing career by just blocking out the noise of people not understanding or accepting a woman in sports and a woman giving them sports on television. It was like I was on my own and I wanted to do this.”

Cohn wanted it so badly that she forged a trailblazing career, anchoring more episodes of “SportsCenter” than anyone in history.

This Friday, Cohn, 66, will host one last time, making her final appearances multiple times, including the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. “SportsCenters” and then appearing with longtime co-host John Buccigross during the coverage of the NHL draft. His final appearance will be during the 11 p.m. edition.

“Linda Cohn is a legend and a major part of the history of ESPN,” ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus said in a statement. “She has brought enthusiasm, personality and her love of sports to our audience for more than 30 years and her contributions to ESPN both in front of and behind the camera would make a very long list.”

Thank you so much for making THIS DAY so heartwarming for me.😊Please know how much your kind words will always stay with me. Stay tuned!❤️
https://t.co/Uj8NrjbPrq

— Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) June 22, 2026

Cohn leaves the network nearly 34 years to the day she joined it. She hosted her first “SportsCenter” on July 11, 1992, at 2 a.m. Since then, she has hosted more than 5,500 editions of the show. Her 5,000th show was celebrated in 2016 and she was inducted into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame in 2017.

Cohn, who attended Newfield High School in Selden, never could have envisioned any of this when she was a sports-crazed kid on Long Island. Though known as a die-hard Rangers fan, Cohn said the first team that really got her interested in sports was the Knicks.

The Knicks had just won their second title in 1973 and Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Walt Frazier were making an appearance at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove. Cohn’s father took her to see them.

Cohn recalled being in front row, facing Walt Frazier. “There I was in the front row staring up at him. Here we were in front of Macy’s and he looked down at the crowd and I felt like he was looking right at me.”

Cohn made the Newfield High hockey team her senior year, something she says was better than going to senior prom, and would go on to play goalkeeper on the women’s team at SUNY Oswego. After graduating from college, she got her first broadcasting job working for WALK-FM in Patchogue as a “news update girl” on the music station.

She talked them into letting her cover the Islanders, saying she would do it for free if they paid her gas money.

Several years later, in 1987 she made sportscasting history by becoming the first full time sports anchor on a national radio network when she was hired by ABC. After working as a sports anchor for KIRO-TV, she was hired by ESPN to work on SportsCenter.

“You just live in the present moment and at the time I never could have imagined this,” Cohn said of her three-plus decades at ESPN. “I didn’t think about what I was building, but now what is important to me professionally is how I inspired so many young girls. They could believe I could do this too because they watched me every morning before they went to first grade, second grade, third grade.

“They could realize that a woman could talk sports. It’s not just me talking here with my dad. I can do it because I really love it.”

Cohn’s contract is officially up June 30, and she and ESPN decided to mutually part ways. Cohn continues to have a YouTube Channel @Lindacohnsports, and she said she is excited about some developments that she is set to announce in the coming months.

Cohn says she’s grateful for the career she continues to have and credits her early experiences on Long Island for giving her the mental and emotional fortitude she needed to follow her dreams.

“There were nights [on SportsCenter] when people would call up and criticize what I was wearing or something like that,” Cohn said. “I learned to believe in my skills playing hockey. I learned how to believe in myself and put my head down.

"I don’t know where I would be and I don’t know if I would have the career I had if it weren’t for that short time, being the only girl on that team at Newfield High School.”