At first, Scott Van Pelt was incredulous, stunned, flabbergasted. And, then, he was just numb. Why would the University of Wisconsin want an ESPN sports anchor — a self-described “bald-headed guy who talks about sports at midnight” — to address graduates at Sunday’s commencement exercises? The more he thought about it, the more weird it felt. Rationalizing that such speakers are usually politicians, Hollywood actors or rock stars, he wondered if he wasn’t being “Punk’d” by MTV’s hidden cameras. “I kept waiting for someone to show up and say, ‘They really don’t want you to do this, ya dope,'” Van Pelt admitted.
Office of Strategic Communication