ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports) is the brand used for sports programming on the ABC television network. Officially the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, for all practical purposes, ABC's sports division has been merged with ESPN, a sports cable network majority-owned by ABC's parent, The Walt Disney Company.

ABC broadcasts use ESPN's production and announcing staff, and incorporate elements such as ESPN-branded on-screen graphics, SportsCenter in-game updates, and the BottomLine ticker. The ABC logo is used for the digital on-screen graphic in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, and is also used for promotions so that viewers will know to tune into the broadcast network and not the ESPN cable channel.

Prior to September 2, 2006, the broadcast network's coverage carried the ABC Sports brand, although integration of ABC's sports division with ESPN had begun a decade earlier. The branding change was made to better orient ESPN viewers with the programming on ABC and provide consistent branding across ESPN's outlets (shortly thereafter, ESPN2's in-game graphics were likewise changed to refer simply to "ESPN"). Despite its name, ABC's sports coverage is supplemental to and not a simulcast of ESPN, although ESPN and ESPN2 will often carry ABC's regional broadcasts that otherwise wouldn't air in certain markets.

Allen Wilford Brimley (born September 27, 1934) is an American actor. He has appeared in such films as The China Syndrome,Cocoon, The Thing and The Firm. He had a recurring role on the 1970s television series The Waltons. Brimley has also done television commercials, including advertisements for Quaker Oats and Liberty Medical.

Brimley was born as Allen Wilford Brimley in Salt Lake City, Utah, where his father worked as a real estate broker.

Prior to his career in acting, Brimley worked as a ranch hand, wrangler, blacksmith, and a bodyguard for Howard Hughes. He then began shoeing horses for film and television. He began acting in the 1960s as a riding extra in Westerns and as a stunt man at the urging of his friend, actor Robert Duvall.

Brimley was cast in the popular 1970s television series The Waltons as Walton's Mountain resident Horace Brimley, in seven appearances from 1974 through 1977.

Brimley became famous later in life for appearing in such films as The Hotel New Hampshire,John Carpenter's The Thing, and Cocoon. In 2001, he starred in the Turner Network Television film Crossfire Trail with Tom Selleck. He had an important role in The China Syndrome. He often plays a gruff or stodgy old man, notably on the 1980s drama series Our House. His first characterization was in Absence of Malice, in which he played a small but key role as a curmudgeonly, outspoken James A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General. He expanded on this characterization as the world-weary manager of a hapless baseball team in The Natural, a film in which his friend Duvall appeared as an antagonistic sportswriter.