Lisa Byington, play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Bucks, will deliver the Diederich College of Communication’s Axthelm Lecture on Tuesday, April 15, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 pm in Sensenbrenner Hall 304.
Byington made history in September 2021 as the first female full-time television play-by-play announcer for a major men’s professional sports team. Over the past decade, she has held play-by-play and reporter roles across basketball, football and soccer telecasts on FOX Sports, FS1, Big Ten Network, CBS, Turner Sports, Pac-12 Network, ESPN and the SEC Network.
A true trailblazer, Byington became the first female play-by-play announcer to call NCAA men’s basketball tournament games in March 2021, covering First Round action for CBS and Turner Sports. She returned to the tournament in 2022, 2023 and 2024, calling additional rounds for CBS and Turner Sports. From 2021 to 2024, Byington also served as the play-by-play announcer for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. She made her mark on the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games as a men’s and women’s soccer announcer for NBC Sports and provided play-by-play for the 2019 Women’s World Cup on FOX. Between 2017 and 2019, Byington worked as a sideline reporter for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on CBS and Turner Sports.
The Pete and Bonnie Axthelm Memorial Program was established in 1994 at Marquette to acknowledge and recognize the life of Pete Axthelm and his sister Bonnie. Every year this program awards a scholarship to an outstanding Marquette journalism student with an expressed interest in sports journalism.
