Thomas E. Mees at Southington, Connecticut

Southington, Connecticut

Southington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is part of Connecticut's 1st congressional district. It is situated about 20 miles southwest of Hartford, about 80 miles northeast of New York City, 105 miles southwest of Boston and 77 miles west of Providence...

, was an American sports broadcaster specializing in ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

.

Early life and career

He began his career as a student at the University of Delaware

University of Delaware

The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

. He then took a job as sports director at WILM-AM

WILM-AM

WILM is a conservative talk radio station broadcasting in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. WILM is known as the station where radio and television talk show Joe Pyne developed the confrontational style now standard in radio and TV talk shows...

 in Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

. Mees returned to Delaware in 1992 when he announced the Blue Hens

Blue Hen Chicken

The Blue Hen of Delaware is a variety of chicken that was adopted on April 14, 1939, as the state bird of Delaware. The University of Delaware mascot, known as YoUDee, is also modeled after the bird....

' America East

America East Conference

The America East Conference is a NCAA Division I college athletic conference whose members are located mainly in the northeastern United States. The conference was known as the ECAC North from 1979 to 1988 and the North Atlantic Conference from the fall semester of 1988 to the end of the spring...

 Championship for ESPN from the field house at Delaware

Delaware Field House

The Delaware Field House is an indoor athletics facility on the campus of the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. Constructed in 1966, the venue seats 4,000 fans for indoor track and tennis events...

.

After six years in Wilmington and one year in Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...

, Mees was hired by ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

 as one of their first on-air personalities for the network's launch on September 7, 1979. In 2005, he was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame

Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame

The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame is a membership-based organization founded in 1976. The organization runs a museum with exhibits at Daniel S...

.

ESPN

Mees was a lead anchor on SportsCenter

SportsCenter

SportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...

from 1979 to 1987 when he took on play-by-play duties for NHL

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 games on ESPN

ESPN National Hockey Night

ESPN National Hockey Night was ESPN's weekly television broadcasts of National Hockey League regular season games and coverage of playoff games, broadcast from 1992 to 2004...

. ESPN later lost the NHL contract to SportsChannel America and Mees returned full time to SportsCenter. When the NHL returned to ESPN, Mees worked NHL games during the season and hosted SportsCenter in the off-season. Mees was also the powerful guiding voice of NCAA Ice Hockey on ESPN, and was a forceful advocate to help the growth of the Frozen Four (NCAA Hockey's championship tounrnament) into its national status today.

By the 15th anniversary of ESPN, Mees was one of three, along with Chris Berman and Bob Ley

Bob Ley

Bob Ley is a sportscaster for ESPN. He, along with Chris Berman, is one of only two original SportsCenter anchors still with the network.-Biography:...

, original SportsCenter anchors still with the network.

Death

On August 14, 1996, Mees, who did not know how to swim, drowned in a neighbor's swimming pool. At first, police said Mees jumped into the pool to save his daughter, Gabrielle, but later said that account could not be confirmed. He left behind Michele, his wife of almost ten years, and two daughters: Lauren, who was eight years old, and Gabrielle, who was four.

Following Mees' untimely death, ESPN hired Dave Strader

Dave Strader

Dave Strader is an American sportscaster and currently is the #2 play-by-play announcer for NHL on NBC and NHL on Versus...

 to take the vacant play-by-play spot on the National Hockey Night

ESPN National Hockey Night

ESPN National Hockey Night was ESPN's weekly television broadcasts of National Hockey League regular season games and coverage of playoff games, broadcast from 1992 to 2004...

broadcasts.