The Fabulous Sports Babe

The Fabulous Sports Babe was a semi fictional character who hosted various American sports radio broadcasts. The program, hosted by Tampa Bay area resident Nanci Donnellan, was syndicated across the United States on both ESPN Radio and ESPN2, from 1994 until 2001. She is noteworthy for being one of the few female broadcasters in sports radio, and was one of the first female sports radio call in hosts in America.

She first appeared on the radio on WEEI Boston and WLOM Cape Cod. In 1983, she joined Tampa Bay radio station WNSI (1380) and later on at WPLP (570) hosting her own sports show at night, The Nanci Donnellan Show. From 1991 to 1994, she was the weekday afternoon sports talk show host on KJR 950 AM in Seattle before joining ESPN Radio. In 1994, ESPN Radio picked up Donnellan's show, and made The Fabulous Sports Babe the network's first nationally syndicated weekday programs (prior to this, ESPN Radio only operated on weekends). She also helped launch ESPN2, by having her show simulcast on the channel during the afternoon and late night. Her show was heard in more than 500 cities in the United States and Canada and over 35 countries around the world. Donnellan left ESPN in 1997 amid acrimonious network response to her autobiography, joining ABC Radio Networks (at the time still independent of ESPN Radio even though both were still owned by The Walt Disney Company) for a brief time. She then waged a successful battle against breast cancer. Donnellan returned home to Tampa where she eventually signed on with the relatively new Sports Fan Radio Network that year. Donnellan used the studios of WQYK 1010 AM in Tampa to produce her show when it was on the Sports Fan Radio Network. She was one of the cornerstones of the network's programming. However, in 2001, shortly before Super Bowl XXXV, Donnellan was fired due to the network's financial troubles (Sports Fan parent company Winstar eventually declared bankruptcy in 2003). As a result, the Sports Fan Network ceased operation. Donnellan's self imposed hiatus would last four years as she recovered from breast cancer surgery and treatment, which in turn was followed by a double knee replacement, both byproducts of her obesity (at the time, the 5 foot 2 inch tall Donnellan weighed over 300 pounds); Donnellan would later lose over half her body weight in an effort to restore her health. Donnellan had made enough money from her time at ESPN and her book advance to not have to work for several years.

Nanci Donnellan was born on June 7, 1948, at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. Her father abandoned her as a toddler, and her mother and stepfather frequently moved around as a child, preventing her from establishing long term friendships; she has also hinted that her family disapproved of her going into the radio business, and she did so partially out of spite. She graduated from Clover Park High School in Lakewood, Washington, in 1966. She attended, but did not graduate from, the University of Tampa and Northeastern University. Donnellan has made a point of keeping her on air persona of "the Fabulous Sports Babe" and her real life wholly separate; she seldom speaks of her personal life out of fear that it would be a distraction (particularly her romantic life, only to admit that she has one, and that although she has not come out herself, she is sympathetic to LGBT causes). Grantland. com attempted to interview Donnellan, but she only offered brief, repeated and irritated responses to every question she was asked. With Neal Karlen, she wrote a 1996 book, The Babe in Boyland, in which she discussed men, women, football, goalies, strikes, and clueless sports executives in a unique style.