A Once-in-a-Lifetime Interview with a Legend

A candid conversation with the iconic sportscaster Bob Costas on navigating a career on the airwaves and what it means to be Orange.

Chloe Smarz interviews Bob Costas in a newsroom
Chloe Smarz (left) interviews legendary sportscaster Bob Costas.

Syracuse University broadcast and digital journalism major Chloe Smarz ’25 is a host on student-run CitrusTV’s ’Cuse Countdown and looks to become part of the Orange’s proud legacy in sports broadcasting. She recently had the opportunity to do something she “would have never imagined in a million years,” she says—and that’s interviewing someone she grew up watching on TV, the legendary sportscaster Bob Costas ’74. In a conversation at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Smarz quizzed the Emmy Award-winning broadcasting great about what influenced his decision as a high school student to join the Orange family, his early career, his ongoing connection to campus, Syracuse’s sportscasting tradition and advice for students who want to become the next Bob Costas. “I never had a plan,” Costas tells her. “What I did try to do was get better at each step along the way.”