Nittany Lion standout joins Steve Jones and Jack Ham on Penn State Sports Network Broadcast Team as sideline reporter

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; August 29, 2016 – Former Penn State standout Derrick Williams is joining the Penn State Sports Network broadcast team as a sideline reporter. Williams joins the Voice of the Nittany Lions, Steve Jones, and Penn State “Linebacker U.” legend Jack Ham on all broadcasts this season.

Williams earned All-Big Ten first team honors in 2008 to go along with Walter Camp and Sporting News All-American second team accolades. One of the program’s most explosive playmakers, Williams ranks 12th in program history in receiving yards (1,743), fourth in receptions (161) and sixth in all-purpose yards (4,156). As a senior, Williams caught 44 passes for 485 yards and three touchdowns, while also running for 243 yards and three scores. Williams was an instrumental member of the Nittany Lions’ 2005 and 2008 Big Ten Championship teams that won the 2006 Orange Bowl and played in the 2009 Rose Bowl.

A standout return man, Williams recorded five return touchdowns in his career, including two kickoff returns and one punt return for touchdowns in 2008. He is the last Nittany Lion to return a punt for a score with his 78-yard touchdown against Notre Dame in 2007.

After a prolific career at Penn State, Williams was selected in the third round of the 2009 NFL Draft, the highest Nittany Lion selected that year. He spent two seasons with the Lions and parts of seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts. Williams currently sells medical devices in his home state of Maryland.

Jones and Ham are in their 17th season sharing the broadcast booth as the play-by-play announcer and color analyst, respectively, for the Penn State Sports Network.

A 1980 Penn State graduate with a degree in speech communication and broadcasting, Jones began doing radio play-by-play of Nittany Lion basketball games during his undergraduate career. He became voice of the men’s basketball team in 1982 and debuted on the football broadcast with the 2000 Blue-White Game. In all, he has done radio play-by-play for more than 1,000 Penn State basketball and football games.

A product of Johnstown, Pa., Ham quickly developed into one of the greatest linebackers in college football history and helped Penn State earn the moniker, “Linebacker U.” He earned a starting role as a sophomore in 1968, his first year of eligibility, and helped the Nittany Lions to a 31-game unbeaten streak. During Ham’s sophomore and junior seasons, Penn State posted back-to-back 11-0 seasons capped by Orange Bowl wins, but finished second in the polls both years. A senior co-captain in 1970, he led the team with 91 tackles, had four interceptions and set a school record with three blocked punts and earned first-team All-America honors.

A second round draft choice of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers in 1971, Ham was a nine-time All-Pro linebacker, helping the Steelers to four Super Bowl titles. He was selected NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1975 and played his entire 12-year NFL career in Pittsburgh. Ham is the only Penn Stater inducted into both the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame (1990) and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1988).

More 60 radio stations across Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Ohio carry Penn State football to fans throughout the Northeast this season on the Penn State Sports Network. Additionally, all Penn State Sports Network broadcasts also can be heard via the Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics website: www.GoPSUsports.com.

The football broadcasts begin 90 minutes before kickoff with the one-hour “Dietz & Watson Tailgate Show” with host Roger Corey, along with Jones and Ham. “The Penn State Bookstore Kickoff Show,” a 20-minute conversation with Head Coach James Franklin follows, before Jones and Ham bring listeners the starting lineups, health reports, field conditions and late-breaking news in the final minutes leading up to kickoff.

The broadcasts conclude with the “Pennsylvania Propane Gas Association Postgame Show” featuring locker room interviews, game statistics, stars and plays of the game, as well as scores from around the nation.

The Penn State Sports Network is syndicated by Penn State Sports Properties, a property of Learfield Sports, one of the country’s largest syndicators of college sports.

Penn State opens the 2016 campaign against Kent State at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, September 3 at 3:30 p.m. The Penn State Sports Network broadcast begins at 2 p.m.