Thursday, Aug. 20 was always going to be a busy day for Hanna Williford.
As the in-park emcee for the Columbus Clippers, Williford was scheduled to be on the microphone for the 12:05 p.m. first pitch against the St. Paul Saints at Huntington Park. Then, once the game ended, the eternally busy Williford was headed to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, where she would be helping produce content for social media when Ohio State’s women’s soccer team kicked off the home season with a showdown against No. 12 Kansas at 5 p.m.
And if that wasn’t enough, she would reprise those duties for that night’s men’s soccer game against Virginia Tech, which was slated for an 8 p.m. kickoff. It was a full day that, somehow, got fuller when the Clippers’ home game the night before
got postponed due to weather, necessitating a doubleheader the next day.
Williford was there for all of it. Because of course she was. And it wasn’t even the busiest day of the summer for the intrepid, ever-present fixture of the Columbus sports scene. That took place in early June, when she worked the Memorial Tournament pro-am in the morning, moderated a discussion for a panel of athletes at Muirfield Village Golf Club in the afternoon and was on the microphone at the ballpark for that evening’s Clippers game.
“One thing about me is I will always grind for my next opportunity,” she said. “If you really want to make it in sports, I feel like you have to do everything, go to everything, say yes to everything.”
At age 29, with an imprint on seemingly every sports team in or on their way to town, Williford is living that mantra on a daily basis. A product of Bowling Green High School in Northwest Ohio, Williford graduated from Ohio State with a bachelor’s degree in strategic communication in 2018.
Just as importantly, she entered the job market with professional experience and a desire to do more. That started with a college internship on the Columbus Crew’s communications team, a first foray into the world that proved an immediate game-changer.
“As soon as I was at the first Crew match I was like, ‘I have to be in sports. I have to do this. It’s so much fun,’ ” Williford said.
That experience in MLS led to an internship with the Big Ten Network’s student group, which works on live broadcasts of Ohio State games. Williford gained experience helping broadcast basketball, volleyball, softball, baseball and other sports as a senior, marking her first time on camera. Upon graduation in 2018, Williford got her first professional break – she was hired as the in-arena host for Ohio State men’s basketball games.
It was then that Williford found herself thrust into the national spotlight.
Half-court shot goes viral
Ohio State’s men’s basketball team held a two-point halftime lead against visiting Syracuse on Nov. 28, 2018, as Williford stood with a microphone underneath the basket at the west end of the Schottenstein Center. Surrounded by students dressed as hot dogs as part of a competition to win a year’s supply of the food, Williford asked one of the students for his name.
“Most people call me Robbie, but you can call me anytime,” he said before taking off, launching a shot from beyond half court and finding nothing but net, setting off a celebration with Brutus Buckeye.
It was her first game as the in-arena host for the program, and the whole thing still makes her laugh.
“I take no offense to it at all,” she said, asked if having someone interact with her like that – even in a joking manner – bothered her. “That was a cool moment right from the beginning. I had no idea what to expect. I just graduated college, that’s my very first game and that happens.”
The clip was shown on ESPN's SportsCenter and has since been viewed several million times on YouTube after being published by multiple different users. In a twist of fate, Williford said that she has lived in the same apartment complex as her hot dog-clad friend for several years.
The moment was something that happened to her. The career that she was already on the path for was something she would continually earn herself. Through her experiences at Ohio State, Williford made a connection with the Clippers, who were looking for an on-field host for home games.
This year alone, she has helped run the AAA Lucky Member Contest, Net Jets Flight School, Hollywood Casino Dice Toss, Great Clips Lil’ Clippers Race, Chick-Fil-A Pitchin’ For Chickin’ and worked as the emcee for PicklePalooza at Huntington Park. When the Savannah Bananas came to town in 2024 to play at the park, Williford choreographed and performed a dance with them.
@hannawilliford More 🍌 talk with KJ #savannahbananas #baseball #savannah #mlb #fyp #greatamericanballpark #cincinnati #cincinnatireds #ohio
♬ original sound - Hanna Williford
Those duties are just a few examples of Williford’s outsized impact on the Columbus sports scene. As a contractor for Experience Columbus, Williford produces content for the marketing organization that was created to help increase tourism and visitor spending in the city. She runs her own social media channels, which feature her interviewing athletes, running social events throughout city and generally showcasing her life as a public figure.
With Experience Columbus, Williford said she was able to work alongside the Greater Columbus Sports Commission as the city worked on its bid to land a National Women’s Soccer League club. Experience Columbus is also a name, image and likeness partner with Ohio State, which allowed Williford to spotlight seven different female Buckeye athletes during the spring and summer as part of the “IgniteHER Columbus” campaign.
In short, she does it all – and odds are, if you’ve watched a non-football Ohio State broadcast, you’ve seen her face.
‘A pillar of our program’
As Ohio State’s B1G+ production manager, Marco Fragale spends most of his time working with a revolving door of personalities who help stream or broadcast live Buckeyes games. For the past five years, that has meant working closely with Williford alongside a cast of freelancers and students looking to gain more on-air experience.
After one broadcast last season, Fragale got a request from the handheld camera operator, who was a student. Would Williford be working the next game and, if so, could they work with her again?
“That was a testament to her getting along with the students and it just made me happy because the biggest concern for me is the experience the students are getting,” Fragale said. “To hear a student excited to do one of the more challenging jobs and hearing Hanna made that student feel that way, that’s what makes the biggest impact to me.”
It was the closest Fragale said he could come to picking a highlight from working with Williford. As a sideline reporter and color analyst, Williford has worked men’s and women’s soccer, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s volleyball, wrestling, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball and softball games during just the 2025-26 academic year.
Some sports are easier than others, but Fragale said Williford has impressed with her willingness to prepare.
“She will put in the legwork to make sure she knows the storylines of what’s important and why it’s important,” he said. “She’ll understand the players’ journey, what they’ve done through their careers. She is just always willing to step up and put in that extra effort. She’s just become a pillar of our program.”
That work ethic is something Williford credits to her Northwest Ohio upbringing and her parents. Her mom, Marina Williford, encouraged her creative side from a young age and would read stories she wrote as a child, helping instill the love of the craft that still carries on. Joe Williford works in health care administration in Bowling Green and has told her that he too loves writing and wishes he had gone down that career path.
Her biography on si.com, where she writes about Ohio State sports with a heavy emphasis on football, also describes her as a “digital storyteller.”
“He always tells me you should go for it and that you will always have my support, because you’re living out your dream,” she said of her dad.
Where could that dream ultimately lead Williford? A year ago, when asked that question, she wasn’t sure. As the 2026-27 Ohio State sports calendar gets going, Williford said she can feel a growing push toward sideline reporting and interviewing.
Anyway, for arguably the hardest-working woman in Columbus sports, the destination isn’t nearly as important as the daily opportunities provided by the journey.
“I’ve always wanted to just work hard and do this, and I have refused to give up,” she said. “In sports, it’s just so hard to make it in this industry. There were a lot of moments earlier in my career where I could’ve said I’ll just go do something else, but I think because I’m so passionate about what I do, it doesn’t even feel like work. It feels like I’m fulfilling my passion or my creative outlet.
“I feel like I’m just living out my passions. I have the most fun job in the world.”
Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hanna Williford is everywhere in Columbus sports, but how did it happen?
