Rob Hawthorne

Rob Hawthorne is a football commentator currently working for BSkyB's Sky Sports. He is notable for his commentating alongside Andy Gray in the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul.

He was born in Dudley, Worcestershire now West Midlands. He was a pupil at Foxyards Primary School and later the Blue Coat School.

His media career began at the age of 14, when he was still a pupil at the Blue Coat School. After participating in a local radio talent spotting competition, he was taken on by Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton.

Rob also appeared and presented quite regularly on Dudley and District Hospital Broadcasting (DDHB) from the Guest, Burton Road, and Russell Hall hospitals in the Black Country area of Dudley to which I was Technical Operator. (Dave Cresswell TWitter @davecres)

He became one of the regular commentators on live broadcasts for BBC Radio 5, shortly after its launch, before moving on to BBC Radio Five Live with the rest of its sports team in 1994. After senior commentators Mike Ingham and Alan Green, Hawthorne and colleague Ron Jones formed the second "tier" of commentators. During his time on radio Hawthorne commentated on several Division One Play-off finals, the Scottish Cup Final, a number of FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals and two major international tournaments - Euro 92 and World Cup 94.

His first live television experience came in 1991, when he covered Brazilian championship football games for Screensport.

Hawthorne's move to television was completed as he became part of the Sky Sports commentary team covering Monday night games in the F.A. Premier League; his first live game was Leeds United v Liverpool in August 1995.

...
Wikipedia