{"id":60180,"date":"2018-06-29T10:49:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T15:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=60180"},"modified":"2018-06-29T10:52:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T15:52:05","slug":"uwm-super-fan-michael-poll-to-appear-on-espn-for-special-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-super-fan-michael-poll-to-appear-on-espn-for-special-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"UWM super-fan Michael Poll to appear on ESPN2 for Special Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Poll has been a manager and \u201csuper-fan\u201d of UWM athletics for over a decade. Starting July 1, Poll will trade his signature sweater-vest for a jersey of his own, competing as an athlete for Team Wisconsin at the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>And, he\u2019s going to be featured on ESPN2.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN, the broadcast partner for the games, will air a feature story about Poll on July 3 at 5 p.m. on ESPN2. ESPN networks will broadcast the games with coverage beginning around 5 p.m. each day from the opening ceremonies on July 1 through the end of the games on July 7.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/shE6h2uoqRk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The 43-year-old is a die-hard sports fan. He\u2019s helped manage and cheer on every UWM sports team during his time with the Panthers, but his fondness for basketball often leads him courtside at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena for men\u2019s basketball games.\u00a0UWM athletics gives out an award every year in his name, the Michael Poll Spirit Award, and he <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelbobbles.com\/bobblehead\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">even has his own bobblehead<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Poll\u2019s dribbling, rebounding and shooting skills will be put to the test at the 2018 Games; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wisn.com\/article\/im-going-uwm-superfan-panthers-manager-receives-invite-to-world-special-olympics\/13049156\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he received an invitation<\/a>\u00a0to join the men\u2019s basketball team last year.<\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"http:\/\/www.specialolympicswisconsin.org\/stories\/michael-p\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">began competing in Special Olympic games<\/a>\u00a0in 1985, and during his career has competed in nearly every sport the games have to offer. Those years of multi-sport competition make him one of Team Wisconsin\u2019s most experienced athletes at this year\u2019s games. In addition to competing for Team Wisconsin in the USA Games, Poll has twice competed for Team USA in the World Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Poll has been a manager and \u201csuper-fan\u201d of UWM athletics for over a decade. Starting July 1, Poll will be competing as an athlete for Team Wisconsin at the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle. And, he\u2019s going to be featured on ESPN2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13597,"featured_media":60197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174,200],"tags":[249],"section":[],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[167],"class_list":["post-60180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-in-brief","tag-community-engagement","uwmnews-feed-alumni-association"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UWM super-fan Michael Poll to appear on ESPN2 for Special Olympics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michael Poll has been a manager and \u201csuper-fan\u201d of UWM athletics for over a decade. 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