ESPN’s Stanford Steve recalls the first time he met Scott Van Pelt 

If you’re a fan of ESPN’s SportsCenter, you’re likely familiar with “Stanford” Steve Coughlin, who serves as the network’s betting commentator and sports betting analyst.

Coughlin is a big fan of golf, and was onsite at the PGA Championship to witness the chaos around Scottie Scheffler’s arrest and Xander Schauffele’s big win.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, Steve joined hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz to discuss a range of golf topics, but Knost and Stoltz were also interested in digging into Coughlin’s rapport with ESPN colleague Scott Van Pelt. That prompted Coughlin to tell the story of how he and Van Pelt first met.

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“I am a PA in radio,” Coughlin began. “It’s about 2006 and I’m working a night show on the radio side. So radio is on one side of the building and then the TV anchors are prepping for the late SportsCenter down a hallway. Duke was playing Maryland that night and they’re like, why don’t you go see if Van Pelt — I’m like, Scott Van Pelt? They’re like, yeah, he usually stops in, he’ll pop in the radio on his walk over to SportsCenter.

“I’m like, all right. So I go over, I see him. He’s at a desk. Never met before. And he’s typing away doing his, you know, he types everything he does. He writes, he doesn’t have anybody to write anything. He does his own stuff. And he’s, he’s sitting there and I’m like, Scott, Steve from radio, was wondering if you wanted to come on after the Maryland-Duke game tonight to provide some thoughts. And he just looks up at me.

“He’s like, ‘The game’s in Cameron and Duke’s gonna blow him out. Coach K is gonna get every call. Maryland’s gonna lose. Why do you want me to come on the show?'”

As the guys had a good laugh, Coughlin continued.

“I’m like, that’s a true fan,” Coughlin said. “Maryland won. He didn’t come on.”

It was only a few years later that Coughlin impressed Van Pelt with a correct prediction about Andrew Luck’s talent. The two started working together in radio, and then Coughlin joined Van Pelt when he became the host of SportsCenter in 2015.

For more from Coughlin, including his story about meeting Tiger Woods on his recruiting trip, check out the full episode below.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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