Former Columbus sports anchor Rece Davis to host ESPN's 'GameDay'

"Any time you have a new chapter and new challenge it is reinvigorating. It can be energizing and a fresh start. People like new cars and a new house. There is a sense of freshness about something new." -- Rece Davis, ESPN sportscaster

Nearly a quarter of a century removed from his television roots in Columbus, Rece Davis gets a fresh start Saturday morning when he moves into the host's chair for one of the most iconic sports shows in the nation.

Davis, just a few months shy of his 50th birthday, will be the new host for "College GameDay," an ESPN road show that captures the spirt, zaniness and passion of college football as it hopscotches from campus to campus.

Davis is taking over for Chris Fowler, who is moving into a different role with ESPN after hosting the show for the last 25 years.

It's a long way from the five years Davis spent at WRBL Channel 3 during the late 1980s and early '90s when he and his sportscasting buddies Roger Manis and Mike Sammond worked long hours for peanuts.

"I knew Rece Davis when he was making $12,000 a year," Manis said this week. "And I can assure you he's not making $12,000 anymore."

Davis is at the top of his game, and earlier this year ESPN adjusted its talent lineup to get Davis into a spotlight role. They signed him to a contract through 2021.

But to understand where Davis will be at 9 a.m. Saturday when he opens "GameDay" live from Arlington, Texas, where Alabama is playing Wisconsin that night, you need to know where it started.

Sammond and Manis were the sports team and Davis joined them in a part-time sports role. They were all right out of college -- Davis from the University of Alabama and Sammond and Manis from the University of Georgia.

"We were young, naive, but we had a lot of fun," Sammond said. "And at that age, we all thought we were good."

Davis started covering news stories during the week and sports on the weekend.

"I tell everybody I jumpstarted Rece's career," said Sammond, now a sports radio host in Atlanta. "In 1990 I left to go do baseball play-by-play and Rece moved full time into sports. Before that he was covering city council meetings, the board of education. He hated it."

But Davis knew he was getting valuable experience as he toiled away at WRBL, which was second fiddle in equipment and ratings to WTVM at the time.

"When you are in a situation that I was in, in Columbus, I had good partners through the years, whether it was Roger Manis, Mike Sammond or Robert Hydrick, all talented guys," Davis said. "But when you are at a station of that size, you learn to overcome difficulties and put the show on without any excuses. Something that was also extraordinarily beneficial to me during my time there was the number of reps you get."

Davis did his first live pregame show in 1989 at WRBL. CBS had the broadcast rights for the first Alabama-Auburn game to be played in Auburn, and Manis and Davis wanted to go live from Jordan-Hare Stadium with a pregame show. At the time, it was not an easy lift at WRBL.

"We didn't have feed to do it, so we tapped into Auburn's live satellite feed," Manis said. "Rece and I were live on the field before the game. We interviewed (Alabama) Coach (Bill) Curry and (Auburn) Coach (Pat) Dye."

But they also had chores Davis won't have today in Fort Worth.

"We were under the stadium a few hours before the show went on pulling wires," Manis said, laughing as he recalled the story. "Rece may be on the air with (Lee) Corso, (Kirk) Herbstreit, (David) Pollock and Dez (Desmond Howard) today, but it started with me in Auburn."

By the end of his WRBL days, Davis was sports director and was looking for opportunities to move up. But they were not coming quickly.

"We did not have a lot of resources back then," Manis said. "We had a great group of people there, but it was tough. I don't know why, but it was a tough market to get out of."

In October 1993, Davis got a break. He was hired by WJRT-TV in Flint, Mich. Six weeks later, he married Leigh Langley, a Columbus native and WRBL sales representative who he met at the station's fax machine.

"If that is not dedication and true love for somebody to leave her hometown and go to with me to Flint -- which was a great place by the way," Davis said. "But at the time we didn't know anything about it."

Leigh Davis, a 1979 Columbus High graduate, said she was in her dream job at WRBL when Rece took the job in Flint.

"You know, that was the best thing we did," she said. "At the time, it was really scary. But they were great people."

Once Davis got to Flint, the doors began to open quickly. He was no longer in Columbus fighting to get someone to notice him.

"I don't know what it was, but it was just a better product," Leigh Davis said. "The tapes were sharper. It was just better,"

"When I got to Flint, I started getting a lot of opportunities," Davis said. " For whatever reason, I couldn't get the break or attention when I was trying to move up the ladder from Columbus. I had an opportunity in Columbus, Ohio, one in Oklahoma City, one in Milwaukee that didn't work out. It all happened. I got there and the opportunities started coming."

That was when Leigh Davis had an important conversation with her husband.

"We started getting these calls and she said to me one day, 'Where do you want to go?' I said, 'I want to go to ESPN, but I think I have to get to a bigger market.' She said why don't we focus on that," Rece Davis said. "As it turned out, I was looking at an Alabama alumni magazine and an article about Andrea Kirby. She was a talent coach, spent a number of years on the air at ABC and was working as a talent coach for ESPN. I sent her my tape."

Then things started to happen.

"She looked at it, encouraged me and showed me the error of my ways, trying to work my way to an Atlanta, Chicago or Boston and then trying to get to ESPN," Davis said. "She was 'no, no, no, send your tape now.' They want the younger guys, they work cheaper, all that kind of stuff."

After 16 months in Flint, ESPN hired Davis in February 1995 to host "Sport-Smash," a hip show on ESPN2. A year later, he was hosting his first "SportsCenter" on ESPN. He has done a variety of assignments over the last two decades, including hosting college football and basketball studio shows on Saturday and play-by-play on Thursday night college football games.

"One of the most impressive things about Rece is he is a natural ringmaster," said Manis, who has retained a close friendship with Davis. "He makes sure that everybody around him is going to be successful. And that is not an easy thing to do."

And he also works hard. He has spent much of the summer studying for his new role this season. But he still knows how fortunate he is to have a job that ties his talent with his passion.

"He was getting ready to go to work when he was doing the college studio show and he was really happy," Leigh said. He said, 'Can you believe this? 'I get to go to work and watch college football all day, then I get to talk about it. And they pay me.'"

Manis said there was never a doubt that Davis had big-time talent.

"He has come a long way, he's been diligent and professional and paid his dues," said Manis, who now owns an Atlanta sports production company. "Thorough a lot of hard work, he has put himself in the position he is in. But he always had the skill set and the talent. But the best part about it to me, he's just a really good guy."

The Davis family will be in Arlington today to watch as he starts his new role. They have two children, Chris, who is a freshman baseball player at Princeton, and Elizabeth, a high school sophomore.

"We are all so proud of him, and we just want to be there with him," Leigh Davis said. "I knew all along he could do this. It just took awhile."

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Former Columbus sports anchor Rece Davis to host ESPN's 'GameDay' ."