ESPN reporter and university alumnus Tim Kurkjian will speak at the winter commencement ceremony Dec. 19 at the Comcast Center, said Robert Toll, commencement speaker chair for the senior class council.
Kurkjian, who graduated from the university in 1978, accepted an invitation to speak at the ceremony on Wednesday, said Toll.
"After careful consideration, we looked at several alums in the area," said Toll, a senior economics and government and politics double major. "We tried to find someone who could impart advice to students on what it's like to find something you love to do and get paid for it."
Kurkjian will be the third sports commentator to give the commencement speech, joining former Terps football star Boomer Esiason and former Terps basketball star and fellow ESPN analyst Len Elmore.
"When your alma mater calls and you live 35 minutes away, it's hard to say no," Kurkjian said last night in a phone interview. "It's a great honor."
Kurkjian, a Major League Baseball analyst who appears on the cable network's Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter, began working at ESPN in 1998 after previously working at Sports Illustrated, the Dallas Morning News and the Washington Star.
The veteran sports reporter said he's spoken at seven high school commencements, but this will be his first time speaking at a college graduation.
"I guess that will make me that much more nervous. I'm going to focus on not throwing up," Kurkjian said. "I'm hopefully going to make a few people laugh and explain how someone like myself, who is not exceptional in any way, could go on and do some pretty exceptional stuff in life."
The commencement committee, made up of volunteers from the senior class council, began meeting in late August and brainstormed for more than two months on different possibilities. Toll said the university does not pay commencement speakers, and also does not confer honorary degrees, two factors Toll said can make the process tougher to attract candidates.
Despite the challenges in attracting speakers, Toll said the committee came to a consensus on inviting Kurkjian. The journalist said he is looking forward to the opportunity.
"My main advice is corny, frankly, but you've got to show up and try," Kurkjian said. "I've met a lot of people who don't even do that every day. And, you've always gotta be curious. I'm curious when I see a play I haven't seen in a while, or a stat I haven't seen before, or something going on in contract negotiations, or a trade rumor - you have to constantly ask questions of yourself and situations and be curious."
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