For 30 Years, Debbie Antonelli and Beth Mowins Have Formed A Winning Team

Today you can find them covering top women’s college basketball games for ESPN, which includes top-25 matchups and postseason contests. 

For Mowins, broadcasting was always the goal. She remembers watching Phyliss George on the NFL Today show in the 1970’s and asking her mother if she would be able to do the same someday. With her mother’s encouragement, Mowins began to dream. She also began to work.

Mowins would watch sports on TV without volume, so she could provide the play-by-play. When she played Wiffle Ball at recess, Mowins announced her own at-bats. By the time she was in middle school, Mowins used her dad’s job as a shot clock operator as an in to become the public address announcer for her local high school sporting events. “I never really had a fallback plan,” she says. “Whatever bumps in the road I encountered, I was in the business of getting through it, over it, around it, whatever it took.”

Unlike Mowins, Antonelli never planned to be a broadcaster. She just loved basketball and decided to go wherever it took her.

That started at an NC State game when Antonelli was 13 years old. Her family had just moved from upstate New York and Antonelli’s parents took her to watch coach Kay Yow and the Wolfpack. “That’s when I learned that girls could play basketball in college and actually get a scholarship to do so,” she says. “All I wanted was to be good enough to play for Kay Yow someday.”

Antonelli achieved that first dream, becoming a member of the Wolfpack and leading her team to two Sweet Sixteen appearances. After graduating, Antonelli was torn between wanting to coach or becoming an athletic director. She got a masters degree at Ohio University and went on to become the director of marketing for Kentucky athletics and then Ohio State.

While working with the Buckeyes, Antonelli convinced the local cable company to air eight women’s games during the season. That was already a tough enough sell for a company that had never produced sports, but there was a bigger problem: The station didn’t have anyone to call the games. 

“That allowed me to stay on the air,” Antonelli said. “Otherwise I may not have been able to be on TV because there wasn’t TV for women. I created my own opportunity. If I hadn’t done that, I don’t know if I would be where I am today.”

While Antonelli was creating networks, Mowins was calling anything and everything in the sports realm: tennis, volleyball, hockey, and even dog shows. She never said no to an opportunity.

Then, in 1996, Antonelli and Mowins crossed paths, covering a Penn State women’s basketball game together and sparking a partnership that has lasted three decades on the air.

“It was instant chemistry,” Antonelli says. “She was buttoned up and so good at her job. And we both just loved the game. I came from the coaching side and she came from the broadcasting side and it just came together perfectly.”

Together, they’ve called top-25 matchups, NCAA Tournaments and Final Fours. Putting, as Mowins says, “their voices to people’s memories.” But as for their own memories, the best ones happen off the court.

Like every summer, when Mowins would visit Antonelli as her three sons grew up. The boys would play FIFA, while Mowins announced their video game matchups in a British accent. Or the vacations that their families would take together. Or the countless dinners and cocktail napkin brainstorming sessions.

“You remember the people, the moments, but not necessarily the scores,” Mowins says.

The duo has been dedicated to basketball for 30 years. That’s a long time to do anything, they both admit. But for two people who truly love the game, it’s not nearly long enough. Not even close. 

“I’m proud of what we’ve done, how we’ve made each other better and how we’ve helped shape the game,” Antonelli says. “But I’m also energized and excited for our next call.”