Pam Oliver Biography

Pam Oliver (Pamela Donielle Oliver) is an American senior correspondent and FOX NFL reporter.

She is best known for her work on the sidelines for various National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) games.

Pam Oliver Age | How Old Is Pam Oliver

Pamela Donielle Oliver was born on 10 March, 1961 in Dallas, Texas, U.S.

Pam Oliver Family

She was born to John Oliver who was in the United States Air Force, and Mary Oliver. With her family, she moved several times during her childhood, Texas, Michigan, Washington, California and Florida. Pam preferred watching sports instead of watching children’s shows.

Pam Oliver Photo

Pam Oliver Education

In her teenage years, she lived in Niceville, Florida, and attended Niceville High School. She excelled in tennis, basketball, and track and field. She attended Florida A&M University where she earned her degree in broadcast journalism. Oliver was an NCAA and AIAW track and field All-American in both the 400 meters and the mile relay as an undergraduate. She held the distinction of participating on the first women’s team from Florida A&M to win a national championship asd a member of the mile relay team. In 1996, Pam was inducted into the Florida A&M Sports Hall of Fame.

Pam Oliver Husband

Pam has been married to television producer Alvin Whitney since 1990. Alvin was her long-term boyfriend

Pam Oliver Football | Pam Oliver Career

Pam is a trailblazer in sports reporting and celebrates her 25th season covering the NFL for FOX Sports in 2019. Oliver is armed with the respect and esteem of the NFL community with her straightforward and open interviewing style which consistently produces topical and substantive reports. She has contributed to the network’s coverage of eight Super Bowls including Super Bowl LI in year 2017. Atlanta Women in Sports awarded her a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 for her longevity in the business. She was honored with a Gracies Award, by the Alliance for Women in Media in 2018. In 2008, she was honored by WISE (Women In Sports and Events) and also chosen as one of their “Women of the Year.”

From 2000 to 2003, she served as co-anchor of FSN South’s SOUTHERN SPORTS REPORT. She also served as reporter at ESPN gaining football experience covering the NFL Playoffs and the NFC Championship Game. She was a feature reporter on NFL Prime Monday and also covered each Monday Night Football match-up. After the ende of the season, her assignments included the NBA Finals and coverage of Dream Team II at the 1995 World Championships of Basketball.

Pam Oliver Salary

Oliver earns an annual salary of $1 million

Pam Oliver Net Worth

Oliver has an estimated net worth of $4 million.

Pam Oliver Height

The senior correspondent at NBC stands at a height of 1.77 m.

Pam Oliver Images | Pam Oliver Feet

Pam Oliver Andrew Luck

Pam Oliver Hit By Football

Pam Oliver Interview

Published: Jan 30, 2019

Q: You’re getting a lifetime achievement award. What’s that like?

PAM OLIVER: Well, getting it from the mayor [Keisha Lance Bottoms], who I adore. When I heard that, I got nervous instantly. But it’s exciting, you’ve been in this business for so long, and then these things start coming your way. I hope it’s just not like, “OK, here’s your lifetime achievement, time to go.” I don’t feel that way at all. I’m flattered, and I’m honored. It’s going to be a great night.

Q: Is it kinda weird? Because I’m sure in your mind you’re going to be doing this for many many more years.

PAM OLIVER: Yeah! Yeah, but I decided to look at it differently, because I thought that same thought. It’s like wow, lifetime achievement, and I want to have a Barbara Walters career almost. She went as long as she wanted to go. Age and all of those things, that does factor into it for women in this profession, I think, more than men. So as these things come up and they come along, I’ve just decided to take a different view of it. People want to say that they appreciate all the work that you’ve done. I’m excited about the next chapter, whatever that next chapter is. So I’ll take the awards.

Q: So you mention the uncertainty of the next chapter, is this what you envisioned yourself doing when you were younger?

PAM OLIVER: Oh, my gosh, yes. I was very specific in my imagination as well too. When I was 8 or 9 years old, that’s when I knew it was solidified. Everybody knew it, everybody in my family, “It’s six o’clock, Pam wants to watch the news.” They just sort of scattered. My sisters even relinquished the TV for me, and they’re older. Because I loved the whole news process.

It wasn’t sports at that point, it was just news, news, news. I just have specific memories of leaving my activities outside or whatever my friends were doing, and I just wanted to go and sit in front of the TV and watch the news. I thought the reporters — what an exciting life they must have. I was just kind of curious about things anyway, things that were going on in the world even at that time — the Civil Rights movement, the assassinations, all things that sort of engrossed the nation — for whatever reason. Through osmosis, probably, because I had no real understanding of it. I said, “That’s pretty much what I think I want to do.”

Q: What are some of the obstacles you faced along the way? Because you’re kind of a pioneer in this game, not just for black folks, but also women.

PAM OLIVER: I embrace that as well. You’re going to have to run into challenges. You’ve probably had some challenges, everybody does. It wouldn’t be life and living and growing if you had not had some sort of challenges. But throughout the whole process, I just said I’m going to be true to my craft. You can take it, or you can leave it. Or you can like me, or not like me, or appreciate what I do or not.

You can’t get involved too much with people’s opinions. I have a job to do, I’m given an assignment, and that’s my focus. You guys can trip — whoever wants to trip, go trip, you know? I’m just gonna be about whatever it is my job requires, and I want to represent myself well.

So challenges, yeah. I worked in some markets — my early year markets — right out of college, you’re moving somewhere, and my beat was agriculture. Right? You can understand that, right? [Laughing]

Q: Yeah! [Laughing]

PAM OLIVER: Like, what the hell is that? [Laughing] They’re like, “They’re peanuts!” I’d never seen a peanut other than in a Planters jar. So that was challenging, just embracing the material. But that’s what makes it exciting. You’re learning something, and you’re putting yourself out there.

Q: So who were some of the allies you made along the way whether it was somebody you could just go to, or a mentor?

PAM OLIVER: It’s typically the other reporters, you know? Maybe some senior reporters and things like that. I was always looking to learn and trying to get people to look at my tape and give me some critiques. Even your news directors will do that. I’ll go to my bosses in a minute. They’ll usually have some helpful things to offer. So as each market went, I tried to form relationships and friendships that are still lasting from some of the senior people who gave me a lot of guidance.

Q: Getting into some of the fun stuff here …

PAM OLIVER: OK, here we go.

Q: You were an All-American track athlete, you played tennis and basketball in high school as well. I have two questions for you.

PAM OLIVER: Oh, gosh.

Q: One is what’s your favorite sport to play, and the second question is what percentage of NFL media members can you just burn in a race?

PAM OLIVER: Oh, my gosh. Oh, I can’t even now. Let’s see. Twenty-something years later — I think I can definitely take Charles Davis. I can take him, because I think he’s got that slow-twitch muscle group going on. [Laughing]

Q: That’s important, especially if we’re doing short distance!

PAM OLIVER: That’s right! I really would like to challenge him. Thank you for putting that idea in my head. I want it filmed, and we can run it, thanks to you.

Q: That’s awesome, I love that! So track was your favorite sport?

PAM OLIVER: It was, it was my favorite sport. I was all into every sport. I remember the day I felt like I was finally good at something — I wasn’t horrible at a lot of things. So I entered all these races — I think this was the eighth grade — and I won everything. Long jump, 400. I mean, it was ridiculous. Maybe it was the competition, but I was like, “You know what, I kind of dig this track stuff.” And it was just one of my favorite things to do, was run. In Texas at some of the Air Force bases we lived on, we would have these relay races around, I mean a huge relay race, and I was always barefoot. I would run barefoot. I was smokin’ some people too.

Q: What’s the baddest you beat somebody? You ever make anybody cry?

PAM OLIVER: No, I wasn’t really all that, trust me. I used to train sometimes — if I got my group of mile relay girls, I don’t know if we were mad at each other or something so I went and ran with the guys. And they were killin’ themselves just to make sure I didn’t pass them. All I wanted to do was keep up with them, and that was embarrassment enough for them, but I’ve never made anybody cry. I wasn’t all that.

Q: You’ll make Charles Davis cry though.

PAM OLIVER: Yeah, I’m going to make him cry like a baby. [Laughs]

Q: That would be spectacular. Now with some of your work, what’s the biggest event or game — it doesn’t even have to be sports — that you’ve covered?

PAM OLIVER: I did a couple of NBA Finals when I just started at ESPN, with Hakeem Olajuwon, that group. Those were exciting — not that football isn’t. Football is still my favorite sport. But at that point, I was doing all the sports when I was working with ESPN. I wasn’t just this one-trick pony that I’ve become. And so it was just fun, it was a back-and-forth, and that was exciting. That was probably one of the highlights.

Q: What to you is the difference in covering those two sports that makes one more fun than the other?

PAM OLIVER: Well basketball is just go, go, go. You travel, you got a game, and football is a week to get prepared for another game. But the thing about football that still excites me and amazes me is all that work that those players and coaches put in for those three hours on Sunday — I appreciate it. I respect them for what they do. People talk about, “Oh, these millionaires …” I think they deserve every single penny. The thing that makes me crazy, and I just don’t know how it’s not as common as it is in the NBA. Like so many players you know who can only rely on that guaranteed money. Always look at the guaranteed money, I don’t know if a lot of people do that.

Q: The next CBA negotiation is going to be fun.

PAM OLIVER: Oh yeah, that will be pleasant. [Laughing]

Q: Now, outside of that NBA Finals you covered, what’s the one thing you’re the most proud of, whether it’s a piece of reporting, a single interview, or how you handled a situation?

PAM OLIVER: I’ve done a piece on Marcus Dixon, the kid from here, you may remember. I was able to sell a piece for the pregame show because he went from all of this tragedy in Atlanta, and being falsely accused, and losing his scholarship at Vandy. He was able to fight his way back and made it to the Cowboys’ practice squad.

Now that’s one of those stories I think is hiding in plain sight almost, because he had to be convinced to do it. I had to make sure that they understood I was going to take care of him. We weren’t trying a case here. And I was really proud of that story and the way it turned out. And that I was given the ability to do that story where the producer was just really open minded about giving us something else.

I feel like with some of these pregame shows, you give them the same diet of the same stuff every year. Every year we’re going to do the same story on this guy, or that guy. Find something else, you know? It’s like, “Well the audience may not want to see that.” Give them an opportunity to decide. So that was one of those stories when people ask me that, that pops into my head immediately.

I also sat down with Leon Lett one time after the infamous Snow Bowl and all of that. It’s like Scott Norwood. You know, whenever they talk about a Thanksgiving game, they’re going to talk about Leon Lett and his gaffe. But he’s such a gentle giant, he’s just a quiet guy and something just came over him.

But I had to convince the Cowboys too — because he didn’t do any kind of media stuff. But I thought it was another way to show the audience that this a guy who was vilified, who doesn’t do media. We had to stop almost every three minutes so he could towel off, because he was just so nervous. I thought he was interesting and I sold it to the producer, and it worked out. We have so much access to players in our production meetings, and a lot of things we talk to them about don’t get on the air. So you’re building these relationships and you have these little nuggets. I always keep a running list of stories.

Q: Speaking of interviewing players or subjects, what’s an interview you went into with a certain mentality, and you walked out and said, “That was different.”

PAM OLIVER: I wish I could say it was Bill Belichick, but no. That went just as according to what I thought that’d go like. [Laughing] I was setting up this question, and he’s like “I know, I know, I know, I was there.” I was like, “OK!” And I just remember having to collect myself. Just collect yourself, because that threw me off a bit. But I can’t think of anybody who I went into an interview with thinking it was going to be this, and it was that. Maybe in my news days, some political figures. I did a gubernatorial race when I was in Florida, and just talking to — this is where my BS meter really came into play. I think that’s helped me later on because you have to cut through the crap and know if you’re getting an answer.

Adopted from: www.sbnation.com