{"id":1506,"date":"2021-11-24T11:49:25","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T16:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/?post_type=inductees&p=1506"},"modified":"2022-01-07T12:39:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T17:39:03","slug":"don-cornelli","status":"publish","type":"inductees","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/inductees\/don-cornelli\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Cornelli"},"content":{"rendered":"
Anyone who has watched an NFL broadcast in the last 30 years has seen a\u00a0Don Cornelli<\/strong>\u00a0shot. And they\u2019ve also probably seen him\u00a0in<\/em>\u00a0the shot: he\u2019s the guy sprinting down the sidelines anticipating the next play, inches from the celebrating player who has just scored, or getting run over by a player tumbling out of bounds. Whether it\u2019s on the football field, the hardcourt, the fairway, or anywhere else a sports event is taking place, Cornelli and his handheld camera can somehow be found in the right place at the right time to capture the money shot.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cFrom the very beginning of Don\u2019s long, successful career in network television,\u201d says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer and camera operator\u00a0Davey Finch<\/strong>, \u201che has always possessed the wonderful, natural gift of a \u2018great eye\u2019 for shot composition and framing. His camerawork excels because he knows what to shoot, when to shoot, and how to position himself to achieve the best possible shot on any sport he covers.\u201d<\/p>\n As one of the top handheld-camera operators working today, Cornelli endeavors to get viewers as close as possible to the action and is a mainstay on the sidelines of some of the NFL\u2019s biggest games. Though most known for his work on NFL broadcasts on CBS Sports and Fox Sports for more than three decades, he has also covered NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, PGA, NASCAR, the Olympics, and the World Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody sees the world more clearly through a viewfinder than Cornelli,\u201d says Fox Sports CEO\/Executive Producer\u00a0Eric Shanks<\/strong>. \u201cAnd the world is better for it.<\/p>\n A native of suburban Detroit, Cornelli grew up loving sports and, after graduating from Troy Athens High School, attended Central Michigan University, where he caught the sports-broadcasting bug.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not go to Central Michigan thinking I was ever going to be in broadcasting,\u201d he says, \u201cbut, when I got there and started doing the hands-on stuff in the studio, I got hooked. That\u2019s when I realized that this is what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n He began working at the student-run cable station MHTV as well as at the public-broadcasting station WCMU Mount Pleasant, MI. In his sophomore year, he landed a gig freelancing for ESPN on USFL games in Detroit. It marked the beginning of what would become a lifelong love affair with pro football.<\/p>\n After graduating from Central Michigan, he landed a job shooting instructional and promotional videos for General Motors and eventually got a full-time camera gig in news \u2014 first at CNN\u2019s office in Detroit and then at UPN affiliate WKBD Detroit. He continued freelancing on live sports shows on the weekends and, in 1986, worked his first NFL game for CBS Sports in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n Cornelli worked his way up the ranks and, by 1988, was a fixture on the CBS A game with the fabled team of director\u00a0Sandy Grossman<\/strong>, producer\u00a0Bob Stenner<\/strong>, and\u00a0Pat Summerall<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0John Madden<\/strong>\u00a0in the booth.<\/p>\n By this point, Cornelli had opted to leave the local news scene in Detroit and was freelancing full-time, working NFL, NBA, NASCAR, college basketball, and other broadcasts for CBS; Pistons, Red Wings, and Tigers shows for PASS Sports in Detroit; and college basketball for ESPN.<\/p>\n By 1993, Cornelli had begun to make a name for himself as one of the best handheld-camera operators in the business. However, when CBS lost the rights to the NFL\u2019s NFC package to fledgling Fox Sports, he found himself unsure of what was next.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it happened after the \u201993 season, no one knew what was going to happen,\u201d he remembers. \u201cThankfully, Fox ended up taking Madden and Summerall, and they brought Sandy and Bob with them, and Sandy asked me to go with him as well. Those were really exciting times because we were starting something brand new at Fox.\u201d<\/p>\nCatching the Fever: How Cornelli Fell in Love With Broadcasting<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A Life in Pictures: From CBS to Fox and Beyond<\/strong><\/h3>\n