Stephen Gunter filming warmups of an exhibition basketball game between AUM and Auburn at Neville Arena at Auburn.
By: Patrick Eiland
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The late great Marvel Comics editor and publisher Stan Lee loved his job and once said, “If you do what you really want to do, you feel like you’re playing.” Everyone has their own passions and sometimes they take us places we could never imagine.
For Stephen Gunter, multimedia specialist at AUM, it was sports. The former WSFA-12 sports anchor started off like most kids, sitting in his room and idolizing many of the athletes of his childhood. Even he wouldn’t have guessed where that would lead him.
Growing up in Andalusia, sports had always been a part of Stephen’s life. From playing sports to collecting cards, it was clear from a young age that this was where his passion lied.
“I was always interested in sports and stats,” he said. “I collected football cards and baseball cards as a kid, so I loved flipping them over and loved looking at stats you know, and I would jot notes down.”
He would get his first taste of being in front of the microphone when he was offered a chance to do play-by-play for his school’s junior varsity team.
Everything seemed to line up perfectly for him once he arrived at Troy University, the school he would graduate from in 2007. “I got involved in their broadcast journalism program which right when I started there, they started their sports information contract. It was like a minor.”
Like many people in the Montgomery area, he grew up watching WSFA and admired Jeff Shearer. who now works for Auburn University. Again, the stars aligned for him. “Jeff wound up being my teacher there for a couple of sports writing classes.”
He managed to get a chance to be on Trojan TV, the Troy television channel, and that was what finally helped him realize he wanted to be in broadcasting. “Sports was always the interest and what I wanted to do, and it grew into wanting to be in broadcast.”
Stephen looked up to Shearer and many other sports anchors, a history as told by Rosie Langello, from WSFA citing not only Jeff Shearer but also Phil Snow and Derek Steyer stating they “kinda cemented my interest in local television because of what they did and how they made it seem fun.”
He also expressed his admiration of Kyle Burger, who now works at ABC Tampa Bay 28, and who he worked with in his internship at WMBB-TV in Panama City, Florida from 2007-2010.
Stephen did get to experience many amazing moments with his first being sitting down with Florida State’s legendary head coach Bobby Bowden. With him being fresh out of college, he was understandably nervous, but Bowden made it easy for him.
“Bobby Bowden sits down and talks to you like you’re his grandson. He’s just as nice and kind and pleasant to me.” – Stephen Gunter
When he arrived at WSFA in 2013, he managed to be on the field for two memorable games that season. The first being the 2013-14 National Championship game in Pasadena, California.
Though as big as that sound, it was the game he attended earlier that season that stood as his most memorable moment on the field. “The first Iron Bowl I covered was the Kick-6.”
Nov. 30, 2013 has gone down in history as a legendary game for Auburn and a nightmare game for Alabama and he was on the field when it all happened. “Jeff and our photojournalist Doug Goodin were on the endzone they were kicking to, and I was on the endzone where Chris Davis returned it for a touchdown.”
The ending was a perfect example of a picture that says a thousand words. “You pan up to the stands you get Auburn fans going bananas and then you scroll and see the Alabama fan holding his head.”
That was the start of his eight years at WSFA, but why leave? The reason was simple; he became a father. After 14 and a half years and six years as WSFA’s sport director he stepped aside in 2021. After running around night and day and working weekends for that long, Stephen put it simply, “I want to be a dad first.”
Stephen left with no regrets or dreams left on the table. He was lucky enough to cover the media week for the 2013 Super Bowl but he was “really happy with everything I accomplished.”
So why come to AUM? He wanted to bring his skill set to a college campus and help “tell stories of the university and success stories of the students here.” He also works as a videographer for the school for brand enhancement, testimonials, along with interviews with staff and alumni and students for commercials and social media.
Every job has rewarding moments, and this one is no different. For him it was meeting people and forming those relationships you can hold onto for years and seeing them succeed. “That’s the biggest thing is telling those stories through video and interviews.”
Stephen Gunter filming warmups of an exhibition basketball game between AUM and Auburn at Neville Arena at Auburn. Wednesday Nov. 1, 2023.
As every job has its shining moments, there’s also challenges. “Scheduling was for a lot of it.” He had to miss a lot of birthdays and reunions. Having to cover tragedies is never easy, but it is a part of the job, he added.
Working for over 14 years, Stephen saw technology change how the media field has worked. He saw the rise of Facebook and X, formally known as Twitter, and how news became more easily accessible.
This is something Brian Moritz. of Indiana University agreed with, saying in a 2014 dissertation that social media has made news instant. “If, as an example, a player is missing a game due to injury, that used to become part of a reporter’s game story or notebook.” Moritz stated, “Now, it is tweeted out immediately, and a brief story is posted online before the game even starts.”
No longer needing a truck for on-the-spot recording and even having videos on SD cards over VHS tapes to make the entire process much more streamlined are a few of the other advances he saw in his time.
Artificial Intelligence is another one of those advancements and Stephen says it can be used for proofreading and ideas, but you don’t want to fully rely on it. “I don’t want it to take over everything.”
He also said that even using AI, he still wants to tell his own stories, and Nick Edwards of Medium put it best in a recent feature about the future of sports journalism. AI can do things fast but it “often lacks the depth, nuance and emotional resonance that define human-driven storytelling.”
His advice for anyone reading this who wants to become a sports journalist or broadcaster was simple. “The biggest thing to know is the amount of joy you take out of it is as much as you put in.” The job is a grind but put in the work and you’ll make it in the end. Get to know people, be reliable, be available, be kind, and don’t be afraid to take chances with how you write something. Stephen is a shining example of that.
He was the first student who got perfect attendance in Jeff Shearer’s class at Troy and Shearer proceeded to give students that followed him in attendance the Stephen Gunter Perfect Attendance Award. “It became funny, but it became like he remembered me as the student that came to class.” That stood as a testament to his drive, and it carried him throughout his career.
Stephen lived his dream with pride and circled back to his younger self: “If I could have told 14-year-old Stephen that you’d be in San Francisco covering a national championship game, I’d have to pinch myself.”
