ESPN's Michael Fountain to Present 22nd Annual Frank Deford Award

Media contact: Dick Quinn, associate director of communications for sports information; tele: (413) 597-4982; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 22, 2011 – ESPN’s Michael Fountain, senior coordinating producer of College GameDay, will present the 22nd annual Frank Deford Award at Williams College at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 2, in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The Deford Award is presented annually to the top student sports information assistant(s) at Williams College and is believed to be the only award of its kind on a college campus. Members of the family of Aaron Pinsky ’06 will also present the second annual Aaron Pinsky ’06 Sports Broadcasting Award at the event.

Following the presentations, Fountain will speak on “The Ins and Outs of ESPN College GameDay” and take questions from the audience. In 2007, ESPN College GameDay Football made its first appearance on an NCAA Division III campus when it aired its 150th outdoor show from Weston Field at Williams.

Fountain began his professional career as a production assistant at KDKA-TV (CBS) in Pittsburgh, climbing the ranks to executive producer. He has also worked in leading positions at WCAU-TV (Philadelphia), The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, WUSA-TV and WJLA-TV (Washington, DC), BET, and the Discovery Health Channel.

Fountain joined ESPN in 2003 and was promoted to senior coordinating producer in 2007.  He has overseen production of ESPN’s College GameDay Football for the past eight years as well as College GameDay Basketball, College Football Live, College Basketball Final, all studio coverage of the BCS National Championship, and the men’s NCAA basketball tournament coverage.

Fountain has won four national Emmy awards at ESPN and one at The CBS Evening News. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in media communications.

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For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege