Foudy Getting Share of Camera Exposure, Only Not as a Player
The only way Julie Foudy ever met Howard Cosell was through the flickering images of her parents’ television set when she was growing up in Mission Viejo.
But the late sportscaster left a lasting impression.
“I used to always want to be a sports announcer when I was little,” said Foudy, 28, a 1991 world champion and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist. “I grew up watching Howard Cosell and loving him. I can remember that.
“How-ard Co-sell,” she mimicked, getting the distinct accent and inflection just right. “I loved him. And I tell that to people today, younger kids, and they’re like, ‘Who?’ It’s scary. I’m getting old.”
Not really. Everyone else is keeping pace, but not many have as bright a future on the small screen as Foudy, who, along with Carla Overbeck, this summer will co-captain the U.S. team in the third FIFA Women’s World Cup.
It will be Foudy’s third world championship tournament after China ’91 and Sweden ’95. Or, if you count France ‘98, her fourth.
Last summer was when Foudy got her big break, the chance to begin following in Cosell’s footsteps. She was called on by ESPN to provide in-studio analysis for the men’s World Cup in France.
It was an opportunity she grasped with both hands and one voice. “Loudy Foudy,” as she is teasingly known by her U.S. teammates, was an instant hit.
“I think she’s a natural,” said John Paul DelaCamera, ESPN’s play-by-play announcer. “She was always the person who would speak on behalf of the team. I tried to work with her before the World Cup started. She came to me for some advice, and I tried to tell her some of the things to study and prepare for.
“There’s so much information, and you can go in with too much and not know what to do. I told her to just be herself and let her personality go because I think her personality is what carries her. She seems to be a magnet for the camera.”
Not that Foudy, who will be playing for the U.S. against Mexico today at the Rose Bowl, ever dreamed she’d have that chance.
“I always grew up saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to be a sports announcer,’ ” she said. “And then, somewhere down the road, I didn’t think it was realistic. I don’t know how I got in that frame of mind but unfortunately I did, because looking back it would have been so much easier if I had done communications in college.”
That was at Stanford, where Foudy earned a degree in biology while helping turn the Cardinal into a women’s soccer power.
“I love the sciences and decided I wanted to go into premed,” she said. “It was a tough, tough major at Stanford, but I really enjoyed it.”
After graduation, she waited a couple of years before deciding whether to accept a scholarship to Stanford medical school, eventually choosing not to.
“I just decided that if I had a dream job, what would it be?” she said. “It wouldn’t be to be a doctor, it would be to do more TV stuff. So that’s what I’m going to go after. It’s not unrealistic.”
Not at all. Foudy frequently does color commentary now, sometimes joining Amy Allman or Wendy Gebauer, former teammates from the 1991 world championship team.
“I enjoy color,” she said. “It’s hard for me because it’s more of a coach’s perspective on things rather than a player’s, I find. So I have a hard time with it because it’s hard to get the terminology down and I haven’t done much coaching. I’ve only done a lot of playing. But I enjoy it, and I think it would get easier as I get older.
“I’d even like to get into lifestyle stuff and do some other sports, not just soccer. But I don’t want to travel. I’ve been traveling my whole life, so I don’t know if color commentating is going to be the answer, but I really enjoy it. I really like TV. My adrenaline gets going.”
There were nerves, at first, naturally. But Foudy is now totally at ease in front of the camera.
“Oh, yeah, terrible nerves,” she agreed. “Soccer pales in comparison to this stress. It’s much better now. But I was literally thrown into the fire by ESPN. I’d only done a couple of commentary games and I’d never done any studio work. I really didn’t have much experience, so it was a huge, bold move for them to do that.”
The homework she did for France ’98 paid off, even though there was a tremendous amount of detail to learn.
“Tons,” she said, “Seven hundred six players, pronunciations, coaches, systems, tactics. I probably studied for three solid months. It was a lot. But it was good because when the show finally started you were confident because you knew everything, you knew the names, you knew the players, you knew the systems, tidbits of everything.
“Everyone helped. I called J.P. [DelaCamera], Seamus Malin, Bill McDermott, Tommy Smythe. They were all very willing to help.”
It was also an eye-opener. Shows that come across smoothly on the air can be chaotic behind the scenes. It was like that in Bristol, Conn., where the in-studio work was done.
“It was fun. I got to watch practically every World Cup game they have. You get so into it when it’s like that. Everything’s live. You didn’t know your highlights half the time. It’s quick. After a month, I felt like I had learned so much--how you adjust when things go wrong, when you’re on the air, if you forget a name.
“Now, when I do live broadcasts, I feel so much more comfortable. It’s much more relaxed. I feel like I can handle it. I’ve done it all with the World Cup stuff.”
DelaCamera agrees.
“I think it’s her future,” he said, “but I think she still wants to play for X amount of years. But ESPN, based on the feedback that I’ve heard, really likes her and I think that maybe when they do the next World Cup [in Japan and South Korea in 2002] they’ll consider her again because they got a good response to what she did.”
Not that Foudy, who lives in Laguna Niguel with her British husband Ian, sticks tapes of her own performance in the VCR every chance she gets.
“I hate looking at tapes,” she said. “I’m so bad. I cringe when I watch them. I have so much to learn.”
Not so, said ESPN’s Rob Stone, host of ESPN2’s “Worldwide Soccer” and also a color commentator on U.S. games.
“She’s a nut,” he said. “What I like about her is she’s the same when you’re working television with her as she is in the game. I’ve had her on ‘Worldwide Soccer’ maybe about three or four times and in a minute we’ll come up with a whole scheme for a show and we’ll just wing it.
“She’s got that outgoing personality and she keeps a loose atmosphere among the players too. For the television viewer, she’s attractive to the eye, to the ear and to the brain.”
No one ever said that about Howard Cosell.
USA-MEXICO, REPLAY
Mexico’s women’s World Cup team was given a reception at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles on Friday. Today, Coach Leonardo Cuellar and his players probably will get a reception of a vastly different sort when they face the U.S. at 2 p.m. in Pasadena.
The American team left Portugal in a sour mood last Sunday after finishing second to China in the Algarve Cup. Chances are, Mexico will pay the price.
The last time the teams met, on Sept. 12 at Foxboro Stadium near Boston in the Nike U.S. Women’s Cup, the U.S. won, 9-0, with Mia Hamm scoring two goals.
Hamm now has 104, only three shy of tying the world record held by Italy’s now-retired Elisabetta Vignotto.
A Hamm hat trick in the stadium where the Women’s World Cup final will be played on July 10 would be a fitting way to shake off the Portuguese doldrums.
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Today’s Game
* What: United States women’s national team vs. Mexico
* When: 2 p.m.
* Where: Rose Bowl
* TV: ESPN
