ESPN’s College Gameday, now its 36th season as the sports network’s college football pre-gameday show, is one of the most iconic television programs for sports fans. During college football season, the show travels to college campuses across the country for the premier game of the week.
College football fans are well aware of the on-screen talent, notably Lee Corso, on this show since its inception in 1987 -- then as a studio show before going on the road full-time in 1995. The current iteration of the show still includes Corso, along with Kirk Herbstreit (since 1996), Desmond Howard (since 2005), host Rece Davis (2015), and Pat McAfee, now in his second year as an analyst. Several other contributors make weekly appearances, yet behind the scenes there's a perhaps even more important cast of characters.
These truckers get the Gameday set to its location each week, build the set in the couple of days before the three-hour Saturday morning program, and dismantle everything before hitting the road to their next destination.
Led by driver Tommy Marshall, operator for Game Creek Video, the group of seven truck drivers and dozens of engineers and technicians do all that work every week through the fall. In addition to Marshall and Game Creek Video, the other truck operators and companies involved in the show’s production:
Minus Marshall, the rest of the Gameday crew, clockwise from top left: Bill Verberkmous, Cameron Sheckels, David Day, Walter Allen, Nigel Corcho and Gerry Glass
West River Light & Sound, with four of the seven trucks on the tour, is owned by Justin Endres and Chris Irons.
Driving for the crew, unlike most niches within trucking, is a secondary task in mobile TV production of this type.
