Denny Wolfe: Producing - A Happy Accident

Denny Wolfe wanted to be the next Dan Patrick.  He wanted to say "This is SportsCenter."  He says he asked himself a tough question in order to find his true passion.

"It was very hard for me and I had to sort of look at it realistically and say 'Well do I really have a shot at being an on air camera person or what if I really did focus my attention on producing?'"

Wolfe spoke to me over the phone from his home in Connecticut, which makes sense considering his employer, ESPN, has its headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.  He told me it was a day off, but I could tell from the kids shouting in the background he wasn't off the clock from being dad.  Wolfe was able to take a few minutes to explain the journey he has taken to become part of "The Worldwide Leader in Sports."

His passion for sports journalism started when he was six.  Wolfe says he sat in the press box with his dad at high school football games.  Denny would go on to write at the Valley News Dispatch in Western Pennsylvania while attending Westminster College.  Wolfe maintained big dreams despite starting small. 

"When you're driven and motivated and a Type A person, you want to swing for the fences every time you get a chance," Wolfe said. "ESPN was the place for me to go do it."

Wolfe rose through the ranks from production assistant to manager of the ESPN features unit. He says he worked on numerous shows such as SportsCenter, NHL 2Nite and Baseball Tonight among others.  He has done over 250 features in his time at ESPN.

Wolfe says he "fell into being a good producer by accident."  Although he originally dreamed of being the man on camera, it appears Wolfe has been able to accomplish great things by moving himself behind it.

Denny Wolfe Interview Full Transcript
 

Jordan: Denny, what initially drew you to sports journalism after working at Westminster College in Western Pennsylvania at the Valley News Dispatch?

Denny: Actually my love of journalism and sports journalism started when I was six.  My dad was a PA announcer at our local high school and I used to go sit in the press box with him during games.  And I met a gentleman by the name of Walter Nell who would cover it for the local newspaper, and I asked my dad what he did.  He told me he covered the games.  I said does he get in for free?  And my dad was like yeah.  And for me I was a big sports nut as a kid so I fell in love with it right away.  It was an avenue I wanted to pursue.  Following my dreams of ESPN after the Valley News Dispatch, I wanted to work at the biggest place.  And when you’re driven and motivated and a Type A person, you want to swing for the fences every time you get a chance, and ESPN was the place for me to go do it. 

Jordan: As you mentioned, you went as a production assistant to ESPN after working at the Valley News Dispatch.  How were you able to deal with the transition like you said from going to the biggest place from a fairly small publication?

Denny: I thought I was gonna be done after my six month probationary period to be quite honest cause everyone I had met with.  The two other people I started with, one said he had worked, his father worked in New York City with a prominent coordinating producer.   And a girl who also started with me said she was a runner on ESPN golf events and things like that.  And I thought oh my goodness I’m a kid from a town of three thousand people in Western Pennsylvania and went to a school of however many there.  It was very intimidating.  It was not something that I was really ready for, to feel that kind of intimidated.  There were so many students there from Syracuse and I’m like, I thought for sure I was not gonna last more than the six months and had to overcome a lot of fear with that because if you don’t you’re not gonna succeed.  And I’m the kind of person that likes to sort of see that I may be the underdog in the fight and from there I drew motivation to get me where I am today. 

Jordan: And you did survive that six month period, and you were bumped up to an associate producer after being a production assistant.  You worked on several shows including SportsCenter, NHL 2Night, Baseball Tonight, just a few there.  What was it like to work on shows like that, especially about your favorite sports which you were told me were National Hockey League and the NFL?

Denny: I loved it because it was, when you’re really passionate about something, it’s so true that you don’t really work a day in your life.  Like I told you in the pre-interview, working on the NHL 2Night was great because there was just some great guys that I worked with and Barry Melrose and John Buccigross were awesome people.  But we were people who come in as production assistants and associate producers and we’d be coming in two and three hours before our shift started off the clock looking at video and trying to find story ideas and things like that.  Working on the NFL shows, I mean there was just such a great joy.  When you’re working on something you love to do, it’s so easy to get immersed in it and you put in a lot of long hours but in the end, the results are you’re working on something you really love.  It’s not often you get to do that because those assignments don’t always come along all the time and they’re seasonal.  So there’s some times of year where you’re maybe not on a favorable shift, so you really savor those moments a lot more and really make sure you enjoy them when you’re in it.

Jordan: You told me that your initial goal actually coming to ESPN was to get some TV experience to get a job and also you wanted to become the classic SportsCenter anchor, the likes of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann at the time.  How did you become passionate about producing when your initial dream was to be the guy on camera?

Denny: I kind of, like with my career lasting this long at ESPN, I kind of fell into being a good producer by accident because I was moving along the ranks here and doing fairly well.  But I started to see the writing on the wall and the amount of money I would make starting in a small market in a lot of cases, what a pay cut that was gonna be for me.  It was very hard for me and I had to sort of look at it realistically and say “Well do I really have a shot at being an on air camera person or what if I really did focus my attention on producing?”  Once I really focused my energies there, the whole world changed for me and what I was able to accomplish.  It was then that I was really able to start to reach and see some of my potential and what I could do. 

Jordan: And lastly, you’ve done so many features, over 250 actually.  And you’ve worked with Barack Obama on the March Madness brackets and you’ve done work with My Wish with children getting to meet their favorite athletes.  What would you say has been your favorite or most memorable feature that you’ve done as a producer?

Denny: My favorite feature that I’ve done, and I still talk about this one to this day, was done and aired in July of 2007 on a man named Sean Swarner who is a two time cancer survivor with two different cancers.  The second cancer left him with one fully functioning lung, and he was the very first cancer survivor ever to summit Mount Everest.  And he did it to raise hope for cancer patients, but the Everest summit wasn’t good enough for him.  So he went and summited the other remaining summits on each continent, the highest points on each of them, and we picked up his story.  And I had known Sean actually through college.  I didn’t realize the extent of his story, and we picked him up just before he was about to summit Mount McKinley in Alaska.  And, for me, that’s one of the great stories that I’ve gotten to cover, and it’s such a fantastic tale of someone who really embodies that spirit of don’t quit, don’t give up and no matter how bad things are, there’s someone out there you can draw inspiration from.  I think he’s such a tremendous figure that really hasn’t gotten enough mainstream exposure and I think at any point here people are gonna start to sit up and take notice of him.

Jordan: Certainly does sound like a great story, and that’s all the time we have unfortunately, we can’t go more into it.  Denny, thank you for joining us.  That was Denny Wolfe, the manager of the features unit at ESPN.  Thanks again.