Ian Sacks came to KELO in January 2023 as a sports reporter and weekend sports anchor. He enjoys all the local high school and college teams and sports in South Dakota.
He completed his master’s degree in Sports Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in August 2022. While there, he served as a sports reporter and weather anchor for Cronkite News on Arizona PBS. Some of the stories he covered included Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner’s imprisonment in Russia, the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City and monsoon season.
Sacks is a native of Mount Vernon, N.Y., which is the first suburb north of New York City in Westchester County. He serves as the site manager for MidMajorMadness.com, a website that covers college basketball throughout the country.
Prior to Cronkite, he worked with several TV stations in the New York area. He was a runner and score graphic operator with the YES Network, covering the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty and NYCFC. He worked for several years as a production assistant with MSG and the Westchester Knicks. Sacks also worked as a news producer at Fios1 News in New York and at Fox61 (WTIC) in Hartford, Conn. He covered the New York Jets for ESPN Radio Albany (104.5 The Team) during the 2015 season.
He has a wealth of play-by-play experience as well. He called games while he was a student at Iona College and remained active in the school’s broadcasts after graduating in 2016. Some of his fondest memories were announcing and reporting on the Gaels winning both the men’s and women’s basketball MAAC championships in 2016 as well as the men winning four straight titles from 2016 through 2019. He also served as a play-by-play announcer for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, the New York Mets’ Double-A affiliate. Additionally, he called local high school games for several years with LMC Media in Westchester County.
A passionate sports fan, Sacks spends his free time watching sports (surprise!). Basketball is his favorite sport, particularly college basketball. He stands by his claim that March Madness is the best three weeks of the year. Other than his Iona Gaels and Arizona State Sun Devils, Sacks’ favorite teams include the New England Patriots, New York Yankees, San Antonio Spurs, Vegas Golden Knights, North Carolina Tar Heels and Miami Hurricanes. He is also an avid WWE fan. (Yes, he knows it’s fake and still enjoys it.)
Outside of sports, he enjoys spending time with his family, watching movies and television and reading. His favorite author is John Grisham, and his favorite shows include The Honeymooners, Friends, The Resident, Seinfeld, Mad Men, One Tree Hill and General Hospital. One of his favorite movies is Semi Pro, which he could probably quote from start to finish.
