Vince Cellini

Vince Cellini
Born	June 10, 1959 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater	College of Wooster (BA)
Employer	Golf Channel (NBC Universal)

Vincent Robert Cellini (/tʃəˈliːni/; born June 10, 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American sports broadcaster for radio and television, currently working at Golf Channel and various media outlets.

Early life and career

Cellini grew up in the Collinwood neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland. A student at Collinwood High School before transferring to Cathedral Latin School in his junior year then graduating in 1977. He was a baseball and football letterman at Latin. Cellini spent summers in high school and college working for the City of Cleveland Recreation department as a lifeguard at city pools Mandalay (Mark Tromba) and Grovewood, both on the east side.

In 1981, Cellini graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, with a bachelor's degree in communications. Cellini played tight end on the college's football team as a four year starter. He set three team records: most touchdowns in a season (1979) and in a career (1977-80), and yards per catch in a season (1979).

In 1982, Cellini began working as an intern, then sports anchor and reporter at Cleveland's WJW-TV until 1989. He also hosted a sports talk radio show on WWWE Radio in Cleveland.

CNN/Turner Sports

In 1989, Cellini left WJW-TV to join CNN Sports. In 1996, Cellini earned a CableACE Award for his work on CNN Sports Tonight, which he co-hosted with various others including Nick Charles, Fred Hickman, Bob Lorenz and Van Earl Wright. He also hosted a late night program "Calling All Sports" from 1994 to 1995 which was CNN's first interactive show, taking calls, and emails from viewers on live television. Cellini also hosted "NFL Preview" on Sunday morning which remains the highest rated Sunday show in network history.... He left the program and later joined the TNT Sunday Night NFL broadcasting team.

Cellini joined the network in January 2003 after a long stint at the now-defunct CNNSI network. During his tenure within Ted Turner's company, Cellini also worked on CNN itself at times, and was working alongside anchor Carol Lin at the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The Golf Channel

Cellini's first day on The Golf Channel was January 13, 2003, when he assumed hosting duties from Peter Kessler on Golf Talk. The very first guest Cellini interviewed on that night was legendary golfer Arnold Palmer, who, along with Joseph Gibbs, co-founded The Golf Channel in 1995. Cellini's other Golf Channel duties include anchoring the network's flagship news show, Golf Central, and hosting "Top Shelf Wednesday", a 2+1⁄2-hour primetime lineup of shows. In February 2005, Cellini, along with fellow Golf Channel colleague Stephanie Sparks, began hosting the network's reality television competition show, The Big Break, with their tenure as hosts beginning with the show's third season, The Big Break III: Ladies Only. They also hosted The Big Break IV: USA vs. Europe, which aired in the Fall of 2005. Cellini and Sparks returned to host again on February 7, 2006, for The Big Break V: Hawaii, a second "ladies only" edition. Cellini left The Golf Channel in July 2007, then rejoined the channel the following January, resuming his role as a member of the network's group of studio personalities. [1]. According to different internet sources, including Golfweek.com, his contract, which expired in 2009, was not renewed after much negotiations.

Return to Turner Sports

Cellini served as a full-time host for NBA TV's GameTime and a collection of online programs across Turner Sports' digital properties. A longtime cable sports veteran, Cellini was a former anchor on Sports Tonight and received a Cable ACE Award for his work in 1996.

Cellini is the host of mini-shows titled "Fantasy Showdown" and "The Preview Show" for Nascar.com, as of August 18, 2011.

Cellini has covered the PGA Championship since 2011 for TNT.

Other work

Since 2010, he has been co-host of Hawks Live show with Mike Glenn. This half-hour show precedes and then follows NBA Atlanta Hawks Telecasts on SportSouth. Beginning in 2011, he has also been co-hosting a local Cleveland-area golf show called "Par Three Shootout". More recently, Vince hosts Golf Channel's PGA Tour Champions Learning Center, a feature/instruction show with players from that tour. He also contributes to CBS 46 in Atlanta, and teaches at Full Sail University helping aspiring broadcasters.

Personal

Vince's brother, Nick, has been a sports talk host in Atlanta for many years. He currently co-hosts Cellini and Dimino on WCNN.

Cellini is married with three sons.

External links

• TBS Superstation: NBA at the Wayback Machine (archived December 24, 1997)
• Vince Cellini at IMDb