| | Lesley Visser, a pioneer among women sports journalists, joined ESPN and ABC Sports in September 1994. For ESPN, she serves as correspondent for ESPN's Monday Night Countdown, the Super Bowl and SportsCenter programs. In addition she contributes to the network's Triple Crown horse racing specials, college basketball programming, including the NCAA Final Four, and hosts the "Backstage" segment on Monday NFL Countdown.
For ABC Sports, she began serving as sideline reporter for Monday Night Football in September 1998. She serves that same role for college football bowl games, the Pro Bowl, NFL playoff games and the Super Bowl. Additionally, she is a reporter on Triple Crown horse racing events, Wide World of Sports, and the U.S. and World Figure Skating Championships.
Visser joined the sports staff at the Boston Globe in 1974 on a grant from the Carnegie Foundation. At the time, she was one of only a handful of women covering sports. Two years later, she became the first female NFL beat writer when she began covering the New England Patriots. While with the Globe, Visser also covered the NCAA Final Four, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, Wimbledon, the World Series, the Olympics and college football. Visser received the Outstanding Woman Sportswriter in America award in 1983 and twice was named the New England Newswoman of the Year.
In 1986, Visser joined CBS Sports on a full-time basis, having served as a feature reporter since 1982. For CBS, she covered the NBA, college basketball including the Final Four, Major League Baseball including the 1991 and 1992 American League Championship Series, college football, the College World Series, U.S. Open Tennis, gymnastics and bobsled and luge at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games. In addition, Visser was a regular on The NFL Today since 1990. In 1992, she became the first woman to handle the post-game presentation ceremonies at the Super Bowl. She also covered the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 for CBS News, reporting on how sports would be affected.
Visser won the Women's Sports Foundation's journalism award in 1992 in the network television category. She was named a trustee of the Foundation in 1993. In May of 1995, she received an honorary doctorate from The College of Our Lady of the Elms in Mass. In 1999 she won the AWSM Pioneer Award.
Visser is married to sportscaster Dick Stockton, and currently resides in Boca Raton, Fla.
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