GMA anchor Robin Roberts received the 2013 Arthur Ashe Courage Award at this year's ESPY's ceremony. The former ESPN sports reporter gave a powerful and inspirational speech, sharing her mother's words of wisdom, "Make your mess your message." Check out her moving words of wisdom below!
Robin Roberts became known to many across the country as one of the first female sports anchors on ESPN in the 1990's and today, she greets viewers each day as the beloved co- anchor of the country's leading morning show Good Morning AmericA. Roberts has spent nearly two decades on GMA where she delivers the day's news, travels the country and world reporting high-profile assignments and conducts thoughtful interviews with entertainers, athletes and politicians, among others.
She has blazed a trail for women in broadcasting, but it is also her personal journey that has served as an inspiration to countless people as she has overcome life-threatening illnesses twice, as America watched. The 2013 ESPYS will recognize the strength and courage Roberts has displayed throughout her life and career by honoring her with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
Roberts love of sports started when she was a child in Mississippi where she was both a champion bowler and a high school basketball star. In 1983, Roberts graduated cum laude from Southeastern Louisiana University, where she played four seasons for the Lady Lions basketball team. She ranks among the team's leaders for points scored, rebounds, field goals made and games played. In 1994, Roberts was inducted in the Women's Institute on Sport and the Education Foundation's Hall of Fame. Roberts was also inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the 2012 class for her contributions to The Game of women's basketball through her on-court activities and her broadcasting work.
Roberts began her broadcasting career three decades ago as a sports radio anchor and reporter while still in college. She later held several anchor/reporter jobs in Mississippi, Tennessee and Atlanta before she joined ESPN as an anchorwoman for SportsCenter and NFL Primetime in February 1990. During her tenure at ESPN, Roberts national popularity grew as she took on additional roles including hosting ABC's Wide World of Sports, serving as a play-by-play announcer for sports such as tennis and figure skating, and, in a ground-breaking moment, she stepped in to become the first woman to host an NFL pre-game show during the playoffs, as a substitute for
John Saunders. In 1995, the Emmy-award winning Roberts also began working as a featured reporter for Good Morning America and for a decade, Roberts worked at both companies until being named co-anchor for GMA in 2005.
In 2007, Roberts' professional and personal worlds collided as she chose to turn the cameras on herself when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She empowered viewers as they followed her journey to successfully beat the disease and began speaking out on breast cancer awareness and treatment. Her courageous public battle has been recognized with honors from organizations around the country, including The Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Just five years later, Roberts would face the toughest time of her life. In 2012, she announced she was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome), and she would be taking leave from GMA to receive a bone marrow transplant from her sister, Sally-
Ann Roberts. Roberts brave battle with MDS brought attention to the illness and greatly increased the number of donors to the Be the Match Foundation, reportedly the world's largest registry of potential bone marrow donors. Roberts returned to her seat at the anchor desk on February 20, just five months to the day since she underwent her bone marrow transplant.
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