The Stunning Transformation Of ESPN’s Laura Rutledge – The List

March 29, 2025 admin No Comment 7 Views

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Laura Rutledge is living proof that pageant queens belong in the male-dominated space of sports. The Florida native has spent her career showing women that ambition and zeal can lead to stunning accomplishments in many facets of life, whether it be the arts, education, sports, pageantry, broadcast journalism, or a combination of all. Her impressive resume includes crowns and prestigious awards in her field of expertise, highlighting her diverse skillset and accomplishments while encouraging women to stay curious and pursue a wide array of interests.

Rutledge is most recognized for her front-facing role as a sports broadcaster for ESPN, a position she’s held for over a decade. Despite her camera-ready appearance, she didn’t begin her career in broadcasting on screen. The assumption that the former pageant queen started her career at an advantage due to appearance is simply untrue; the fact of the matter is her talent was first noted via radio, with nothing but knowledge, charisma, and voice to recommend her for her first job in the industry.

Rutledge’s unconventional experiences and decisions growing up contributed to her stunning transformation into one of the best-known sportscasters on ESPN, joining the ranks of other notable talents such as Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews and former ESPN reporter, Samantha Ponder. Her lukewarm interest in sports during her youth eventually sprouted into a dazzling successful career, showing the world that one’s success isn’t rooted in lifelong obsession, but dedication to growth and a constant thirst for knowledge.

Laura Rutledge’s family moved around a lot when she was a kid

Laura Rutledge’s childhood was punctuated with movement: physically in the family’s resettling in different places across the Southeast of the United States, and in subjects of interest. Rutledge details much of her life growing up in an interview published by the Tampa Bay Times in 2012. She mentions that her elementary school years were spent in the Florida panhandle, wading around on the shores of the gulf, imagining a life as a marine biologist as she assessed fish and other wildlife around her.

Sports were of little interest to her at that time. Though she clarified that she liked them, she didn’t play much, save a brief stint on a co-ed soccer team with her younger brother who promptly banned her from playing on the same team as him in the future. Rutledge seemed to take the snub on the chin. She recalled her two brothers’ more intense fascination with sports, mentioning to her interviewer that they seemed to constantly consume sports media, particularly the Atlanta Braves on account of their relocation to Georgia as she entered her middle school years. Still not considering her potential future career in the world of sports, Rutledge found herself more invested in broadcasting the weather, aspiring at that time to be a meteorologist. Though her aspirations to be a scientist ebbed with age, her interest in broadcasting lingered.

When the family returned to Florida, just outside of Orlando this time, during her high school years, Rutledge’s attention took a more artistic turn.

The ESPN reporter trained as a ballet dancer in Shanghai

Laura Rutledge’s return to Florida brought with it an intense longing to focus on ballet and seriously work toward becoming a professional dancer. She was so committed to her aspirations that at the age of 16, Rutledge implored her parents to allow her to move to China with her ballet teacher, who was planning on traveling there to be part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In an interview with Justin Stuckey, Rutledge explained that her tenacity didn’t really allow much room for refusal from her parents. “At the time, I was so focused on ballet, and I thought that was going to be my career … once I decide that I’m doing something, I’m doing it. I’m all in. I am going to do whatever it takes,” she said. “I basically gave my parents no choice. I said, ‘If you want to let me follow my dreams, then let me go do this.'”

However, Rutledge was faced with an unexpected hurdle as the ballet school she prepared to join decided upon her arrival that they would not accept her. In her interview with Stuckey, Rutledge explained how that experience was one of her first encounters with such blunt rejection which ultimately prepared her for the hardships of her career in the public eye. Already being on the other side of the world, Rutledge and her teacher searched for a program to enroll her in and eventually found the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Rutledge was accepted into the program and honed her craft.

Laura Rutledge studied sports broadcasting at the University of Florida

Despite her previous earnest desire to become a ballerina, Laura Rutledge ultimately refused two different offers to join professional ballet companies: one in Nashville and another in Sarasota. The decision was not one made flippantly. Rutledge deeply contemplated her next move and waited until the last possible second to accept her admission to the University of Florida in Gainesville.

During her freshman year, Rutledge reconnected with her middle school dreams of participating in some form of mass media, but instead of meteorology, she intended to get involved with campus news. Her first stop on her broadcasting career journey was a position at the University of Florida’s campus radio station. Her intention was to join the news team, but there weren’t any positions available. Instead, she was offered a position as a co-host for the sports show called ‘Cheap Seats,’ a morning show slot that offered commentary on sporting events on and off campus. She accepted and was fiercely dedicated to her role.

Being that the show took place in the morning, Rutledge had to pass on the nightlife and partying that seems almost synonymous with the college experience. Her friends grieved the fact that she couldn’t indulge in some of the exhilarating freedoms that come with the college experience, but Rutledge didn’t appear to mind. She knew she would need work experience in order to have a shot at taking her broadcasting career to the next step — and her sacrifices paid off.

Following her work in radio, Laura Rutledge got her first job offer from Fox

Laura Rutledge’s role as a co-host for the morning radio show, ‘Cheap Seats’ was the job that set up the rest of her career in sports broadcasting. When asked in an interview with Alligator Army, a University of Florida news outlet, about her favorite aspect of working at the campus radio station, Rutledge answered, “I honestly just loved being able to talk about all sports. It wasn’t ever just football. I covered women’s basketball, volleyball, men’s basketball, gymnastics, softball, baseball — you know, pretty much everything. It really equipped me with a lot of skills that I would end up needing once I got to ESPN.” And equipped, she certainly was.

Having started as a freshman, she remained a co-host on the show throughout most of her college career. In her interview with the Tampa Bay Times, she described how she got that first big break as a junior. “Someone from Fox was driving through Gainesville and heard me and called the radio station. He had never seen me. He just liked my voice, I guess, and what I was saying. He offered me a job, and I worked full-time for Fox all through my senior year.”

Just like that, Rutledge was gaining experience working for a major sports network, not only in radio, but writing as well as she contributed to their webpage.

Laura Rutledge never intended to become a pageant queen

Seeing Laura Rutledge’s easy confidence as she stands in front of the camera, reporting from the sidelines of high-profile sporting events, makes it easy to believe she has a history of standing poised before the critical eyes. There’s a fair amount of overlap between pageantry and broadcasting, such as rigorous preparation, personal presentation and style (which Laura Rutledge exemplifies in her best game-day outfits), eloquence, and the ability to appear approachable and natural in stressful situations. Fans of Rutledge would likely be unsurprised to learn that she has a decorated history in the world of pageants, though she had no intention of being a pageant queen when it all started.

In 2010, Rutledge had no experience with pageants. She had witnessed them in her periphery, but there were many pernicious stereotypes that ultimately kept her interest in the prospect of joining low. Signing up for one wasn’t even on her radar until her friends took it upon themselves to sign Rutledge up for the Miss University of Florida pageant on her behalf.

Rutledge was initially against it, but after learning about the $5000 scholarship opportunity and the chance to engage in community service through the pageant, she agreed to participate. Despite her lack of experience at the time, Rutledge won second place in her first competition and continued her pageant career in the following years. She won Miss Suncoast in 2011 and Miss Florida in 2012.

Laura Rutledge married a former MLB player

Laura Rutledge’s ever-deepening relationship with sports brought her to the place where she met the man who would eventually become her husband. Laura, like fellow sportscaster, Erin Andrews, married a professional athlete. While attending a football tailgate at the University of Alabama in 2011, she reportedly chose a “random” tent to hang out under and serendipitously crossed paths with Josh Rutledge, a former student-athlete of the University of Alabama who left the institution after only three years to enter into the MLB draft. At the time of their meeting, Josh was preparing for his MLB debut with the Colorado Rockies.

The pair dated for two years before they married in 2013 in a wintery ceremony. Photos shared by Laura on social media show moments of their church ceremony and elegant reception complete with a red rose bouquet, twinkling Christmas trees, and the warm company of their loved ones.

Though she didn’t share many of the photos back in 2013, the sports reporter has indulged her followers with photos here and there on Instagram and Facebook, celebrating anniversaries and special occasions with family members with images from their wedding, including a touching father’s day post featuring Laura and her father during their father-daughter dance, and a National Siblings Day post showing her posing with her brothers on the day of her wedding.

The sports anchor started covering the SEC on ESPN in 2014

Prior to joining ESPN, Laura Rutledge worked with Fox Sports covering Tampa Bay Rays and San Diego Padres games, which was her first job in the industry post-college graduation, as well as other events in college sports. In an interview with Alligator Army, Rutledge explained that she longed to return to reporting on college sports, specifically the SEC, since that was where her interest was mainly directed. “I had worked my way up at Fox Sports and was doing a lot of Major League Baseball and a little bit of college football, but just really wanted to get back to the SEC because I felt like that’s where my heart really is, and in college sports,” she told the outlet.

In 2014, Rutledge’s career in sports broadcasting was propelled forward when she received an offer from ESPN to work as a reporter for the SEC Network. As her broadcasting skills developed, so too did her recognition and opportunities grow in impact and reach. She was even recognized by ESPN’s President of Content, Burke Magnus, who said, “Her versatility allows us to utilize her in multiple roles, across numerous sports, throughout the year. We are fortunate to have her” (via SEC Sports).

Laura Rutledge became a mother

After six years of marriage, Laura Rutledge and her husband, Josh Rutledge, welcomed their first child, Reese in 2019. Their second child, Jack was born in 2023.

Though excited about motherhood, Rutledge has spoken openly about the effort it takes to be a present parent and a professional in her field at the same time. In an interview with Front Office Sports, Rutledge explained, “It’s like my brain is scrambled eggs at all times,” referencing the difficulty of staying on top of constant demands, preparations for interviews with players, statistics, travel, as well as the needs of her young family. She’s admitted to struggling to figure out how to balance it all, and has dealt with self-doubt when she considers how dedicating herself fully to her job means sacrificing time and connection with her kids and vice versa.

Over the years, she has discovered that even small pockets of time spent with her children are very meaningful, and it helps her maintain her connection with them. She elaborates on the impact of those short windows of quality time, saying, “I think I get more out of it even than they do. I try to find time to sit my daughter down and say — ‘Look at me, let me tell you how proud of you I am, let me tell you how amazing you are’ — so that those are the things that are circling in her mind when I’m not there. My son is 19 months old so he doesn’t understand a lot of the time.”

Laura Rutledge has had multiple prestigious football reporting roles

Laura Rutledge smiling in puffer coat and beanie hat while holding ESPN mic

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Laura Rutledge’s career in sports broadcasting was propelled forward when she received an offer from ESPN to work as a reporter for the SEC Network. As Rutledge settled into her new reporting role, she became the host of “SEC Nation” and “NFL Live,” two immensely popular shows enjoyed by thousands of avid sports fans during each football season. Serving in these host positions, Rutledge utilizes the skills she honed during university at her campus radio station, offering professional commentary, and analyzing player performance and game statistics for viewers at home. Due to her popularity and aptitude, she secured her place as a regular sideline reporter for what the network deems “marquee games” in both collegiate and professional leagues.

Rutledge’s reporting talents have also landed her a role as an occasional reporter for Monday Night Football in addition to her regularly scheduled games.

Beyond normal football game coverage, Rutledge has also reported on many notable NFL and SEC football events, such as the 2022 NFL football game played in Wembley Stadium in London, wherein American football is very rarely played, as well as the NFL draft.

Laura Rutledge has brought her broadcasting skills to many other sports and events

Laura Rutledge on stage speaking at the Sports Business Journalism Awards

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Laura Rutledge’s skills as a broadcaster extend far beyond the football field. Her ability as an interviewer and presenter have led her to serve as a host for events such as The Home Depot College Football Awards and the ESPYs, an American sports award show that exists to celebrate the achievements of athletes across a diverse array of sports.

Even beyond football as a whole, Rutledge has the breadth of knowledge to report on a plethora of other sports like basketball and softball. She also covers major colligate tournaments including the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships and College World Series.

Stretching into the professional realm, Rutledge has also covered the world’s premier golf tournament, the Masters Tournament, in 2024, at which the best golfers from around the world gathered to play at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. For the event, Rutledge hosted “Welcome to the Masters,” a pre-show that led up to the start of play.

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