Palomo '95 Receives NCAA Silver Anniversary Award

INDIANAPOLIS  – Fernando Palomo ’95, former Texas A&M javelin thrower and current ESPN announcer, is one of seven recipients for the 2021 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award. 

The award annually recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of their college athletics careers. The honorees are selected by the NCAA Honors Committee, composed of representatives of NCAA member schools, conferences and distinguished citizens, including past awardees.

During his time in Aggieland, Palomo placed 12th at the 1996 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. His collegiate best throw of 237 feet, 1 inch earlier that year was the third-best mark in Texas A&M history at the time. He also earned All-Southwest Conference honors. Palomo competed internationally for El Salvador, winning eight national titles, and his national javelin record of 72.70 meters set in 1998 still stands. 

As an ESPN announcer, Palomo served as host for the first ESPN “SportsCenter” broadcast for the Latin American market and later hosted the first ESPN “SportsCenter” show in Spanish for a U.S. audience. Palomo has anchored ESPN Deportes and ESPN International’s renowned “Fuera de Juego” soccer program since 2006. He also is ESPN’s English-language commentator for the Mexican national soccer team. In addition, Palomo has worked on ESPN’s broadcast team for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the 2016 and 2012 Olympic Games and the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. In 2013, Palomo started working as the Spanish-language commentator for the EA Sports FIFA video game franchise. 

He is an ambassador for Glasswing International, which operates health, education, migration and community development programs for children in Latin America, and the Salvadoran Foundation for Health and Human Development, known as FUSAL, a nonprofit focused on health and education. A lifetime member of the Texas A&M Lettermen’s Association, he mentors young journalists at the university and is a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians.

Silver Anniversary honorees will be recognized during a virtual Honors Celebration awards show on Wednesday, Jan. 13. The show will be streamed at 7 p.m. Eastern time on the NCAA Twitter account and on the ESPN app.

The 2020 recipients are Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Adam J. Burgasser, Michelle M. Marciniak, Fernando Palomo, Amy E. Reinhard, Lt. Col. Dan Rooney and Michelle Cusimano Vachris.