Courtney Lyle (’12)

Category: Alumni Promise | Awards

2021 Alumni Promise Award Winner

Courtney Lyle joins the ranks of Volunteers who have gone on to achieve acclaim in sports broadcasting. From her graduation from the College of Communication and Information in 2012 to ESPN, she has had a remarkable rise.

While a student at UT, Lyle served two internships at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut; an internship with the Tennessee Titans Radio Network; a sports internship at WVLT-TV in Knoxville; and a season in 2012 producing The Pat Summitt Show for the Vol Network-IMG. After graduation she was picked up as a sports multimedia journalist and weekend sports anchor for WBIR-TV in Knoxville. She also spent a year and a half working as a weekend sports anchor for 13WMAZ-TV in Macon, Georgia.

In 2016, Lyle was hired by ESPN as a play-by-play broadcaster, making her the youngest full-time play-by- play broadcaster at ESPN. From the beginning, she called basketball, volleyball, and softball games for the SEC Network. Over the past four years, she has continued her upward trajectory. In 2019 alone, she worked 93 events across the country, covering basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, and softball. Most notably, she served as a broadcaster for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and did play-by-play for the opening games alongside WNBA legend and Lady Vol basketball great Tamika Catchings (’00, ’05). In 2021, Lyle was a play-by-play announcer for the Tokyo Olympics for men’s and women’s field hockey.

Lyle retains her strong connection with UT and frequently serves as a guest speaker in journalism and electronic media classes.