Ari Wolfe

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Ari Michael Wolfe (born January 7, 1971) is an American sportscaster. Wolfe currently calls events for ESPN, Stadium Network, Tennis Channel, the Kansas City Chiefs, Pac-12 Networks, and NBC Sports. Additionally, Wolfe serves as an anchor and reporter for the NFL Network. Wolfe is also a 2-time NBC Sports Olympic broadcaster and a 2-time Emmy Award winner for his work in college sports.^[1]

Wolfe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Wolfe graduated from Emory University in 1994 and later earned his master's degree at the University of Southern California. As a student, Wolfe did both play-by-play and color commentary for the Trojans' basketball, football, and baseball teams on KSCR (104.7 FM) in Los Angeles. He also hosted the sports talk show Blackjack and the Wolfe Attack.^[2]

Before moving into commentary, Wolfe worked out of Los Angeles as a Highlight Coordinator, creating highlight packages of NFL football games for Fox NFL Sunday.

Since graduating from USC in 1997, Wolfe has called games in college and professional sports. He currently calls events for NFL Network, ESPN, the Kansas City Chiefs, CBS Sports Network, Tennis Channel, Pac-12 Networks, NBC Sports and Stadium Network. Since 2009, he has also worked as an anchor and reporter for NFL Network. Wolfe is a two-time Emmy Award winner.

Wolfe currently calls college football and college basketball for ESPN and Stadium Network with games airing on Facebook. He joined Stadium in 2014 and his primary role is commentating on Mountain West Conference games. 2009 marked the beginning of Wolfe's work for MTN and BTN. Wolfe served as the play-by-play announcer for football, and men's basketball games.^[3] Wolfe left BTN following the 2010 season, while his work with the Mountain West Conference continued until the network ceased operations in 2012. Wolfe has since called Mountain West football games for Root Sports and the Mountain West Network. Wolfe won his 2nd Emmy for his work during the 2014 Mountain West college football season on Root Sports.

Wolfe began calling tennis for the Tennis Channel in 2017 and at the start of 2019, he agreed on a contract West Tennis lasting until 2022. For the 2019 Mountain West Tennis Championships, Wolfe served as the analyst on the Mountain West Digital Network.

In 1998, Wolfe began his play-by-play career as the voice of the Albany Firebirds, serving in that role for six seasons. When the Firebirds left the Arena Football League (AFL), Wolfe was hired to be the play-by-play voice for the Philadelphia Soul, where he remained until 2008. Leading up to the 2018 season, Wolfe called arena games for CBS Sports Network, OLN, ESPN, Versus, and the NFL Network.^[4][1]

From 2005 to 2009, Wolfe was the commentator for the Louisville Cardinals football and men's basketball games. It was while working with the Cardinals in 2005 that Wolfe won his first Sports Emmy for Outstanding Play-by-Play and his overall composite work.^[5] In addition to play-by-play at Louisville, Wolfe also hosted Courtside with Rick Pitino and Kickoff with Coach K.

ESPN hired him as the play-by-play man for the Madden Challenge in 2007, shown on Super Bowl Sunday on ESPN2 and for the Big East Conference.