Stephen Bardo had head start in broadcasting, thanks to his family

At Carbondale High School in southern Illinois, Stephen Bardo wanted to become an electrical engineer. But his struggles in chemistry had him questioning the pursuit. He asked his father, a college professor, for advice.

“Well, you like to run your mouth, and you like sports,” Harold Bardo said, then walked out of the room.

Stephen was puzzled at first – typical parenting, leaving a child to figure out a problem himself – but then he understood. Harold was talking about becoming a sports broadcaster.

“We were a sports family,” Stephen said. “And I listened to all the great ones, so I was getting media training without knowing it by watching all those games early on.”

Bardo entered the broadcasting program at the University of Illinois, where he also happened to be the basketball team’s starting point guard. That includes the revered Flyin’ Illini team of 1989 that went to the Final Four.

Now, Bardo is broadcasting basketball year-round for the Sky, Big Ten Network, Fox Sports and NBC’s Peacock, in addition to producing his own podcast. He’ll be BTN’s analyst alongside Kevin Kugler for the first two quarterfinal games of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday in Minneapolis.

Bardo, an informative and polished broadcaster, began his career with a head start. Whenever he was interviewed as a high school or college player, his parents made sure he spoke clearly and efficiently.

“I’ve always been expressive,” Bardo, 55, said. “It’s just part of my personality. But then being asked to be coherent and concise in a household of college-educated parents, they had a standard for me and my brother and sister, and I think that’s where the training began.”

It continued with internships after his pro career, which took him through the NBA, CBA and Europe. Bardo’s first internship was at CBS 2 Chicago, where former sports anchor Jim Berry, now at CBS News Miami, took him under his wing. Bardo also interned at the defunct CLTV in the late 1990s.

“It’s not everybody who can transition from one phase of life to the next,” Berry said. “It’s difficult for any athlete to find that next space where they feel relevant and energized, and Steve has found a way to do that. For him to really start over and remake himself into who he is today speaks to his work ethic.

“I would argue that Steve has become as big or bigger now as a former player than he was as an athlete. That’s a real tribute to him. That’s what I’m most proud of.”

Bardo’s first job came in November 2000 at Illinois, where he served as the basketball radio analyst. He was on the call for the 2005 team that reached the national championship game. Bardo also worked at CBS 2 before devoting himself to analyst work, first at ESPN, then BTN and Fox.

Bardo views himself as being in the business of “edutainment,” which he got from one of his favorite hip-hop artists, KRS-One, whose album ''Edutainment’’ came out in 1990.

“Anytime you’re in one of the entertainment industries, which I am, you should try to educate, as well,” Bardo said. “You may have heard me say, ‘OK, young people, watch this.’ I try to teach something that I think the viewers can take away and be better educated.”

Bardo has done that off the air, too, producing the e-book “The Art of Sportscasting” for aspiring broadcasters.

“Young people come up and ask me all the time how to get into the business or what it takes,” he said. “I’ve got some videos and a thing that I gave out for free, but I’m going to put together a course in the offseason.

“It’s just a passion of mine because education has always been important in my family, and I could create a curriculum that would help people, particularly young African American people, who are starting to get more exposed to this industry.”

Bardo’s second game Friday includes Northwestern, which earned a double-bye after claiming the No. 4 seed with a program-record-tying 12 conference wins. But the Wildcats are thin because of injuries to guard Ty Berry and center Matthew Nicholson. Bardo thinks they have enough to overcome it.

“With Boo Buie, you can overcome a lot of things with a guard as talented as him,” he said. “Northwestern could be a very surprise team in this tournament based on the fact that they can shoot the three, Boo Buie can get downhill and they defend like an upper-echelon Big Ten team.”

Bardo won’t call his alma mater’s game – Brandon Gaudin and Robbie Hummel will – but he sees the second-seeded and 13^th-ranked Illini going far in the conference and NCAA tournaments.

“They’re as talented as any team in the Big Ten,” Bardo said. “They’re veteran, and they’ve got two closers, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Marcus Domask. That gives them an advantage.”

Bardo said Illinois might be held back by its lack of a traditional point guard, usually a position of vital importance come tournament time. But Bardo thinks if there’s a year when the Illini could get away with it, it’s this one because of their talent.

“Obviously, things are going to be predicated on seeding and the draw that you get,” he said. “But if they get a favorable seeding, they could overcome the fact that they don’t have a traditional point guard and may find themselves in the Sweet 16 or possibly the Elite Eight.”