- published: 15 Mar 2008
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Christopher James "Chris" Berman (born May 10, 1955), also known by the nickname Boomer, is an American sportscaster. He anchors SportsCenter, Monday Night Countdown, Sunday NFL Countdown, U.S. Open golf, the Stanley Cup Finals, and other programming on ESPN and ABC Sports.
Berman was born in Greenwich, Connecticut and raised in Irvington, New York. He is Jewish on his father's side. During his childhood he went to Camp Winnebago in Fayette, Maine. In 1970, he attended the Hackley School and Brown University from which he graduated in 1977 with a degree in history.
Berman moved to WNVR in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was eventually hired at Hartford's WVIT-TV to do weekend sports at $23 per shift. He joined ESPN in 1979 a month after its founding and has been with the network since. Along with Bob Ley, he is one of ESPN's longest-tenured employees. Berman, who is generally known to be heavy-set, often jokes that he now uses his original ESPN jacket from 1979 when he was much skinnier. He is the host of Monday Night Countdown, replacing previous host Stuart Scott. In 1988 and 1989, he hosted ESPN's first game show, Boardwalk and Baseball's Super Bowl of Sports Trivia which was taped at the now-defunct Boardwalk and Baseball amusement park in Orlando, Florida.