Sage Steele, born on November 28, 1972, is a former ESPN television anchor best known for co-hosting the flagship program SportsCenter and hosting NBA Countdown. Born into a military family in the Panama Canal Zone, she graduated from Indiana University in 1995 and came from a trailblazing lineage, as her father, Gary Steele, was the first Black varsity football player at West Point. Before joining ESPN in 2007, she built her career at local affiliates in Indiana, Florida, and Maryland, including co-founding talent at Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. During her 13-year tenure at ESPN, she anchored the noon edition of SportsCenter and covered every NBA Finals from 2012 to 2020, also hosting NBA Countdown from 2013 to 2017. She even drove the pace car at the 2013 Brickyard 400, and later delivered the commencement speech at her alma mater in 2015, which she considers her greatest career honor.