Walker Webcast: Calling Play-by-Plays and Scaling Mountains with Chris Fowler

In 37 years with ESPN, Chris Fowler has covered everything from NCAA men’s basketball tournaments to the Triple Crown. With a resume that diverse, it might be challenging to identify a favorite sport, but Fowler had a ready answer when Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker asked him that question on the latest Walker Webcast. It’s a tie between college football and tennis. 

“The sports are so different; I love the distinction between them,” said Fowler. On the one hand, there’s “the ultimate team sport” with 22 players and “controlled chaos on a field,” while on the other hand, it’s “just two people on a court.”  

Fowler said he considers himself “blessed to have the chance to call championship events at my two favorite sports. And it is a flat-foot tie. I love soccer, I love hockey, I love a lot of other sports, but those two are my favorites.” 

That being the case, Fowler nonetheless ventures far from the gridiron or tennis court on his podcast series. Walker cited a recent podcast with Lance Armstrong, a longtime friend of Fowler, for its unexpected candor.

“I was appreciative of his honesty, and it didn’t make me take the awkward step of having to take off the gloves and go at him as a friend,” said Fowler. “He sort of opened it up right away. And so that’s why we had that kind of conversation. It was not one that we could have had 10 or 15 years ago; that took him evolving to a certain degree with all he’s been through to get to a point where he can have that kind of honest exchange.” 

Another podcast guest was Wasfia Nazreen, the first Bangladeshi to reach the summit of K2, the world’s second tallest mountain and a peak conquered by a far smaller number of climbers than Everest. Her mountaineering career has also included being the only Bangladeshi to have scaled the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each of the continents. “The Dalai Lama was the one who told her that she should make the mountains her calling,” Fowler said. “She actually studied under him. She’s a friend of his as well as a mentee. So she’s got all these different facets.” 

A committed mountain climber himself, Fowler knew about Nazreen’s accomplishments second-hand. “Just to meet her would be incredibly interesting,” he said. “So we finally made it happen and struck up a sort of a long-distance friendship and stayed in touch. And she put me in touch with a legendary Sherpa in Nepal that she knew very well, who guided me and my brother and a buddy around to Nepal this spring. I never would have met him if not for her.” 

The wide-ranging conversation—which also recounted Fowler’s unexpected luncheon hosted by Bono—inevitably concluded with a discussion of college football. Fowler weighed in on the Southeast’s longtime dominance in the sport as well as the long-term implications of the NCAA’s recently introduced Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policy and transfer portal. These recently adopted policies allow college players to be compensated for their NILs and enable colleges to contact athletes who are planning to transfer. 

Asked whether these innovations will help democratize the sport, Fowler said that’s “to be determined.” He noted, though, that the elite college teams will “find a way to make it work for them.” 

On-demand replays of the August 23 Walker Webcast are available on the series’ YouTube channel.