Sandy Stevens joined the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Board of Directors in 2012 and has served as a member of the board's executive committee since 2016.

For more than three decades, Sandy Stevens has been speaking for and about wrestling. A leader among the sport's vast corps of volunteers, Sandy has been "that lady announcer" at hundreds of events ranging from high school dual meets to the Olympic Games.

The full-time journalist from Glen Ellyn, Illinois, was chosen by the Distinguished Members of the Hall of Fame to receive the 1998 Order of Merit as an ambassador for wrestling.

Sandy and her husband, Robert "Bear" Stevens, are graduates of Northern Iowa, where he wrestled for Hall of Famer Bill Koll. When Bear became head coach in 1967 at a brand-new high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he needed an announcer for the four-team, season-opening meet. He asked Sandy to sit at the microphone, welcome people and assign wrestlers to the two mats.

Three years later they held a USA Wrestling district freestyle tournament. After she announced that, Sandy was invited to call the state meet.

"Then Dave McCuskey and Gary Kurdelmeier asked me to do the first Junior Nationals at the University of Iowa," she recalls. "That led me to announcing Iowa dual meets, and began my association with USA Wrestling." What an association that has been!

Stevens has announced all of the Junior Nationals, traditionally the world's largest tournament. She has worked USA Wrestling nationals at all levels, along with Olympic and World team trials.

After calling Division III and Division II NCAA tournaments, she joined Ed Aliverti at the Division I nationals in 1982 and they were the premiere collegiate announcing team for 34 years. They worked together at the Olympic Games of 1984 and 1996.

On her own, she has announced Cadet, Junior, Espoir and Senior World Championships, the Pan American Games, the Midlands, high school tournaments from coast to coast, and a host of regional, national and international events.

She has received the Meritorious Service Award from the National Wrestling Coaches Association and the International “Exceptionelle” ranking from United World Wrestling. She was also the first female inducted into the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002.

Stevens started the “Pledges for Pins” initiative at UNI in the fall of 2007. The program has generated more than $132,000 and has drawn wrestling support from 17 states.

In the fall of 2015, she helped create the Bear and Sandy Stevens Head Wrestling Coach Endowment at the University of Northern Iowa. Funds from the endowment support the salary of the UNI wrestling coach position. This isn’t the first time that Stevens has given back to UNI as she was the lead donor in the wrestling room renovation project in the West Gym and has endowed two wrestling scholarships.

Stevens is also a board member of the UNI Foundation and she represents UNI in the Chicago area in a variety of capacities, including assisting UNI’s admissions counselors in recruiting Chicago-land residents to attend UNI.

When she is not behind the microphone, she enjoys spending time with her children (Scott and Summer) and her grandchildren (Ben, Julia, Allison, Madeleine and Cameron).