Good Morning America from … Robin Roberts: morning show co-anchor turns sports dreams into broadcast success

SHE began playing tennis when she was 10. By the time Robin Roberts was 12, she was Mississippi's state bowling champion.

"Tennis, bowling, Tiddly Winks, whatever," says the 45-year-old co-anchor of ABC's Good Morning America during a recent interview at the show's New York City studios in Times Square. "I just loved competition."

But even more than competing, Roberts loves to win. She did while growing up as the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman on the Gulf Coast in the small town of Pass Christian, Miss. And she does now, as one-third of the Good Morning America anchor trio, which includes Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson, in a neck-and-neck race against longtime top dog NBC's Today Show.

She was named to the prestigious position last April. For GMA, Roberts has covered events that range from the homecoming of soldiers aboard the USS Roosevelt to the Golden Jubilee at Buckingham Palace to the 25th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley to the controversial gentrification of Harlem. Roberts says that she loves the versatility that her job allows.

On a recent morning show, Roberts discussed the hard news of the day during one segment, and joked around with a dance group who had gained famed on the Internet during the next segment. "There is no other place in broadcasting where you have the opportunity to discuss so many different subject matters, and for it to be accepted," she says.

But no story has affected Roberts the way that Hurricane Katrina did when it tore through her hometown last year. "It was one of those defining moments in my life and in my career," she says. "Life as I know it will never be the same."

Within hours of the storm, ABC dispatched Roberts to her storm-ravaged hometown to do live television reports. But Roberts now reveals that she had other priorities. "My only concern at first was to see my mother, and to see my family members," she says. "That was my only concern. If I could broadcast, then fine; if I couldn't, then I couldn't. But I had to find my family."

She accounted for all of her family members, but the same could not be said for their material possessions. Her two sisters, one of whom is the news anchor of a New Orleans morning TV show, were displaced. So was her mother, and some other family members. "Everyone in my family has been affected," she says. "Close your eyes and think about where you grew up, and imagine it not being there anymore. My hometown was unrecognizable. I look at my childhood differently now knowing that part of it has been taken from me since Katrina."

Roberts has spent much of her life in the Gulf Coast. She graduated cum laude from Southeastern Louisiana University with a bachelor of arts degree in communications. She was also a standout on the women's basketball team, ending her career as the third-leading scorer in the school's history.

In fact, Roberts says that as a child her dream wasn't to be a journalist. She wanted to be a pro athlete. She already knew that she was going to be tall and athletic. It was in her genes. Her Grandma Sally was 6 feet and had enviable basketball skills in her day. So it was no surprise when Roberts became a star basketball player in high school and college.

But that's where it ended. Roberts quickly realized that her dream of a sports career would never pan out. "I had the passion, but not the ability," says Roberts, who eventually concluded that if she couldn't be on the court, she at least wanted to be courtside. So she pursued a career in sports broadcasting. "I knew I couldn't play professional sports, but I still wanted to have that lifestyle of being a professional athlete," she says. "That's how sportcasting came about. I could still go to major sporting events. I could still go to Wimbledon."

During the beginning years of her career, Roberts worked in television broadcasting in Biloxi and Hattiesburg, Miss., and as a sports reporter and anchor in Atlanta.

Since 1990, Roberts has been a contributor to ABC-owned sports network ESPN, where she hosted several programs, including the networks legendary Wide World of Sports.

At ESPN, Roberts worked as host and play-by-play commentator of the network's WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) games and specials from 1997 to 2000. She was also the primary reporter for ESPN's coverage of the Winter and Summer Olympics.

But it wasn't long before what she called her "passion for sports and mere interest in journalism" was flipped on its ear. "I started to realize that viewers really depended on me and my sports coverage" she says. "And I understood early on the power of journalism."

By the mid-'90s, Roberts had branched out from the daily sports grind to producing human-interest stories. "Until then, I wasn't being big enough in my thinking about what I could do," she says. "I was continuing to limit myself. Sports was my comfort zone. And it takes courage to step out of your comfort zone and push yourself."