Hall of Fame
Steiner graduated from Bradley in 1971 and immediately launched his broadcasting career by working at radio stations in Peoria, Ill., Davenport, Iowa; New Haven, Conn.; Hartford, Conn.; and Cleveland before entering the New York market in 1978.
He was the play-by-play voice of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals from 1983-85 and the NFL’s New York Jets from 1986-87 before joining ESPN as an on-air talent in 1988 . Steiner spent 14 years at ESPN, serving as a popular SportsCenter anchor, while also serving as the network’s lead boxing analyst and handling play-by-play duties for college football ESPN2 primetime games and for the Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts on ESPN Radio
Steiner left ESPN in 2002 to become the New York Yankees radio play-by-play announcer, and he now is in his 17th year as a play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers after spending three years with the Yankees.
He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in November 2013 and is a five-time Emmy Award winner. Steiner won a Clarion Award for his coverage of the Mike Tyson rape trial, as well as a CableACE Award for his work on a Muhammad Ali documentary produced for ESPN’s Outside the Lines series.
Bradley University’s Charley Steiner School of Sports Communication is the first named school of sports communication in the country.