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Nick name
Stevie D -
Biog
After starting in sports journalism in 1988, Steve was a tax accountant before an ad in the Straits Times brought him back to the media world in 1994. -
Favourite team/sport
Football, Liverpool FC
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Did you know?
Steve has seen baseball games in 31 major-league ballparks. -
Programme credit
Raceday / Chequered Flag, SportsCenter Asia
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Full Biography
STEVE DAWSON
The host of STAR SPORTS Formula One coverage, and co-host of the award-winning SportsCenter programme, English-born Steve Dawson brings a unique style of enthusiasm and knowledge to the screen. Steve really is as pleased to be working in Sport as he seems to be.
SPORT AS A PASSION:
Steve has been involved in sports journalism since 1988 when he first reported for a weekly fight magazine called “Boxing News”. A Liverpool fan since he can remember, he admits having been emotional when Kevin Keegan left the Reds for Hamburg and had another "moment" when Rafa's Revolution outlasted AC Milan in Istanbul.
Baseball is another sporting passion, having seen Major League games in 31 different ballparks - 26 of them in just six-and-a-half weeks!
BACKGROUND:
Born in South East London, Steve studied Economics and Public Administration in West London and spent 11 long years of his post-university life as a Tax Accountant. With a father who was an academic and an Oxford University graduate, a career in sports never struck the sports junkie as an option. "The idea of doing something as wacky as sports journalism was never really a prospect," said the Liverpool fan.
Steve Dawson made his move to Singapore in 1994 with his wife who is Singaporean. "We came here on holiday and what's not to like when you come here? We ended up staying.
THE BREAK:
"Then having been in Singapore for over five years, I realized wasn't very good at being a tax accountant. I was looking through The Straits Times for another tax job when I saw an ad saying- ' Change your career, be a journalist with The Straits Times.' And that was the first time I actually thought about doing that full-time.
"I got the job at The Straits Times and slowly moved into sports; ended up with Channel I as a news reporter and anchored the Olympics news coverage and Euro 2004. That's how I ended up moving to ESPN STAR Sports. The rest? You can see on the screen.
Question & Answer with Steve Dawson
Q: how did you come to be in your current position in your broadcasting career?SD: I was a tax accountant but not a very good one. So while looking for another tax job I saw an advertisement to become a journalist with the Straits Times. One thing led to another and I ended up on TV reporting and presenting with the newspapers television arm, then ESPN came a-calling.
Q: Is reporting on sport the next best thing to playing it? And what was the pinnacle you reached in your favourite sport?
SD: In many ways it's better to watch than play. I've had some great moments playing sport but it's hard to think of any example that can match when Liverpool won the European Cup in 1977, when Lloyd Honeygan beat Don Curry for the world welterweight title and when Steve Ovett used to take on Seb Coe in the those balmy track and field nights of the early 80s...
I played football for Kent Schools.
Q: What is your favourite sport outside of the one you are best known for? And how do you relax when you are not working?
SD: What am I best known for? Football, baseball and boxing in no particular order.
Q: Who was the biggest influence on your life, either within your career or outside?
SD: Jim Rome in my career, Mum and dad outside.
Q: Who is the most memorable individual you have met during your playing or working life?
SD: What makes this whole thing fun is that I still haven't met my three idols: Kevin Keegan, Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammed Ali. I still live in hope.
Q: Tell us the funniest story you have heard regarding your chosen, or any, sport.
SD: When Gazza and Paul Merson were at Middlesbrough and Merson was trying to get over his gambling addiction and convince everyone else that he was succeeding, Gazza used to put a copy of the Sporting life (a horse racing paper) in his inside jacket pocket in just such a way that it would fall out when Merson took it off the peg. Daft as a brush...
Q: Do you/did you have a nickname?
SD: Stevie D
Q: Tell us something we may not know about you..
SD: I've seen games in 31 Major League Baseball parks - 26 of them in the space of 6 weeks!
