SE: Challenging End to Jill Montgomery's K-State Track and Field Career Helped Propel Her to Broadcast Success
Jan 17, 2017 | Track & Field
To fall and get back up again. To hurt and to heal. To face adversity and prosper.
These are the compelling stories Jill Montgomery loves to share as a sports broadcaster for ESPN. It helps that she’s a living example of all three.
More than 20 years ago, Montgomery entered her final outdoor season for K-State track and field on a high note. It was 1995, she was riding a pentathlon championship at the Big Eight indoor meet and was ranked among the top heptathletes in the country.
Another conference championship was expected. All-America honors were in her sights.
A long jump attempt at the KU Relays, however, walled off her plan. Montgomery completely tore her hamstring at the meet, ending her final season in a K-State uniform well before she expected.
“I was No. 1 in the conference in the heptathlon, I was slated to be an All-American, and I was picked to win the outdoor conference. I tore my hamstring completely long jumping. It ended my outdoor season,” she said. “I competed indoor, I won indoor and I had set (Ahearn) Field House records, but I didn’t get to compete in a K-State uniform my outdoor senior season. It was a little devastating.”
When Montgomery, now living in Los Angeles, California, said this, she had just finished moderating an Olympic panel at K-State in November, when topics of fear, failure and fight were discussed thoroughly. She could relate her journey to each.
“That failure and not being able to have that success in my collegiate career propelled me to come back in my professional career and want it that much more,” said Montgomery, who returned to the track from her hamstring injury to compete for a handful of years on the professional circuit.
From there, she tested out a few career paths before finding one that truly made sense: sports broadcasting.
“Sports are in my DNA. I wanted to be able to be a factor in telling other people’s stories,” she said. “I was so fortunate to have such a blessed road as an athlete, but I just really wanted to tell other people’s stories.”
Montgomery, who said she was “extremely lucky” to get into the sports broadcasting industry, broke into the profession as an analyst at NBC in 2009. She became a go-to for the network’s track and field coverage, covering Diamond League meets regularly and working with Dwight Stones, Ato Boldon and Lewis Johnson — all former track stars now known for their broadcasting skills.
In 2011, Montgomery was hired as a sideline reporter for ESPN, where she’s covered college football, basketball and track and field, and worked with a long list of influences.
“Holly Rowe is amazing at her job. Heather Cox, also amazing. Reece Davis has been one of my pillars. Reece and I are very close, and I have learned more from him as a host and just being able to pick his brain,” she said, “but I think anybody I’ve come across when I’ve worked with them, like Brent Musburger and Dick Vitale, you can’t not learn from those guys. I’ve been really blessed to work with the best of the best.”
Throughout her career, she’s maintained a professional approach. She can’t help but to admit to experiencing a few “wow” moments, however, with one in particular standing out. It was five years ago and Montgomery had replaced Erin Andrews on ESPN’s Super Tuesday package. The game was Michigan State at No. 2 Ohio State.
“I’m sitting at my table with the monitor, which is basically the show everybody is seeing at home. I’m watching the program and we come out of the first commercial break and it says, ‘Commentators: Brent Musburger, Dick Vitale, Jill Montgomery,’” she said. “I had to take a breath because I couldn’t believe it. I got teary-eyed, ‘Does that say what I think it says?’ And then I was, like, ‘Pull yourself together. You have a game to do.’”
Montgomery laughs at the story now. Anymore, her wow moments are few and far between. She’s far too busy dissecting her on-air work, looking for the slightest ways to improve in an ultra-competitive field.
“Continuously challenging yourself to get better is essential. I think once you accept mediocrity or you begin to muddle, you’re done,” she said. “Continuously research and reinvent yourself. Again, always try to find something where you can add value and no one else can.”
At K-State, Montgomery said she acquired another asset for life: toughness.
“It just taught me how to be tough. I think when you live here and you go through an athletic department of any sort, but especially here, because we’re not a Duke, we’re not a Texas, you really have to grind it out and you have to make your mark,” she said. “Coach (Cliff) Rovelto, the other assistant coaches and my teammates, we made each other tough. It has really been a big attribute into what I’ve taken into my everyday life now.”
Additionally, the Montana native left Manhattan with perspective that can’t be taught and connections that are hard to make. Both are key assets, Montgomery said, in her broadcasting repertoire.
“Whether it’s me having an inside relationship with a football coach that I was teammates with here at K-State,” she said, referencing relationships with former K-State football coaches such as Bob Stoops, now the head coach at Oklahoma, and Brent Venables, Clemson’s defensive coordinator. “I’ve been very lucky as an athlete to now have relationships that I can go to and add value to a broadcast, or I can relate to kids because I was that athlete. I can say, ‘Listen, I know you’re exhausted but can I get you to do this interview?’ I think being prepared and asking the right questions also helps.”
While track and field broadcasts may come more naturally because of her background, Montgomery said covering college basketball might be her favorite sport to work in. The reason? The challenge.
“It is so fast, so quick, you have to be on your toes, and you have to be able to add value. When you’re doing an audio hit and you’re listening to what the boys are saying, everything is just so quick,” said Montgomery, who will work her first track and field broadcast of 2017 on January 28th, at the Razorback Invitational. She will also work the SEC Indoor and Outdoor Championships and both NCAA Championships. “Track meets are five hours long and you have a little bit of downtime, but I really do enjoy college basketball because it’s my biggest challenge to stay as close to perfection in a broadcast as I possibly can.”
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