Broadcasting Career
In the 1980s, Trautwig hosted USA Network's coverage of the National Hockey League; one off-beat feature that he did was to interview a water fountain. He occasionally guest hosts the NHL on Versus studio program Hockey Central.
Trautwig was one of the original hosts for Classic Sports Network when it was founded in 1996.
He has co-anchored coverage of the Tour de France (from 2004 to 2007 on Versus (formerly OLN) and in the 1980s for ABC), the Olympics, and NBC's coverage of the Arena Football League. Despite his years of experience as a broadcaster, he was sometimes criticized by cycling fans, for his occasionally uninformed commentary, and his tendency to compare the Tour to various mainstream sports he covers.
Since 2000, Trautwig has taken over the spot long covered by John Tesh of hosting U.S. national and international gymnastics competitions, including the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympic games. Trautwig's co-hosts are former Olympic Gold medalist Tim Daggett and former Canadian champion gymnast Elfi Schlegel.
From 2005–2008, he also co-anchored USA Network's coverage of the US Open tennis tournament. Trautwig also had a cameo in the movie Cool Runnings as an announcer for the bobsled competition. Now he co-anchors the US Open's live feed during the tournament.
The 2000 New York Sportscaster of the Year, Trautwig has covered the last eight Olympic games, and has won New York Sports Emmys for his coverage of the Yankees, Knicks, and Rangers. From 1991–2001, Al was host of the New York Yankees' pre and postgame shows on MSG Network and also was in the booth for a few innings per game. In 2006, he hosted the new MSG show called Al Trautwig's MSG Vault, which featured vintage and sometimes discovered lost footage of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
In addition to his current duties, at the beginning of the 2006 football season Trautwig became a radio host as well, hosting the radio version of NBC's Football Night in America for Westwood One, which co-produces the show (called NBC NFL Sunday) with the network. However, Trautwig left the show in the middle of the season.
He also hosts NBC's coverage of the Ford Ironman World Championship, Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 and ING New York City Marathon.
Trautwig also hosts a weekly video podcast on television show Lost.
Trautwig's most infamous broadcast blunder came in 1988 during the University of Miami -v- University of Michigan football game in Ann Arbor. In the fourth quarter, with Michigan leading 30-22 with over five minutes to play, the game broadcasters took a studio break where Trautwig came in and made the statement "Now that the top ranked Miami Hurricanes have lost". Trautwig would later regret that statement; Miami Hurricanes would go on to win 31-30.
Read more about this topic: Al Trautwig, Biography
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