Senior Managing Producer at ESPN to Shares Insight with Student Leaders

Senior managing producer at ESPN Features Group and Westminster graduate Denny M. Wolfe will be this year's guest speaker at the Student Alumni Association (SAA) annual leadership dinner. Every year, SAA invites student leaders on campus to a dinner with remarks given by an influential alumni. With over 20 years experience working for ESPN, Wolfe will share some tidbits from his personal and professional journey. 

Wolfe earned a BA in broadcast communications and a minor in speech communications from Westminster College in 1997. He grew up in Leechburg, Pa., and graduated from Leechburg High School in 1993.

As a student, Wolfe engaged regularly with the Westminster College community. He served as WWNW-89FM’s sports director, DJ, and play-by-play/color announcer for Titans football games for three seasons, including the 1994 National Championship game in Portland, Ore. On the TV side, he worked as the station’s sports director, served as sports anchor, performed play-by-play and analyst roles for high school football games, hosted “Coach’s Corner,” and worked on the Titan TV Crew for remote broadcasts. With a background in journalism, Wolfe also contributed regularly to The Holcad as a sports writer. For three years, he also worked part-time on-campus for the A-V Services department, led by Gary Swanson.

Wolfe served as an executive for several organizations. He was elected to the positions of president of Theta Chi fraternity, executive committee member of the Inter-fraternal Council, vice president of the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society, and vice president of the Ice Hockey Club. Along with serving in the Student Senate, he served as public relations chair to the Student Government Association. He was also a member of Omicron Delta Kappa’s leadership society.

Upon graduation, Wolfe landed his first job with the Valley News Dispatch (now a part of Trib Total Media) in Tarentum, Pa., as a part-time staff sports writer covering high school football, youth sports, and pro football. He left the newspaper in November 1997 to work for ESPN in Bristol, Conn.

Hired on Nov. 24, 1997, Wolfe took a job as a temporary production assistant (PA) and worked on various jobs for ESPN’s flagship show, “SportsCenter,” including nightly highlights of games. After being promoted from temporary to full-time PA in June 1998, he earned staff positions on “Sunday NFL Countdown,” “NFL Primetime,” “Baseball Tonight,” and “NHL2Night.” While covering hockey, Wolfe discovered his passion for telling feature stories on athletes, just as he did in the newspaper business. These opportunities led to promotions to associate producer and feature producer at the network.

In 2011, Wolfe became senior managing producer in the ESPN Features group, a position he still holds today. Since joining the network, Wolfe has won four National Sports Emmy Awards and received more than two dozen nominations. He resides in Bristol, Conn., with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Avery, Brayden, and Carter.

The leadership dinner takes place on Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. in the Witherspoon Rooms located in the McKelvey Campus Center. 

For additional information, please contact Nicole Hunter at hunterna@westminster.edu or 724-946-7373.

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