Bring Me The Sports

Beloved Minnesota sports broadcaster Marney Gellner battling cancer

"I'm going to be fine. There's good news in that it was caught very early."

Joe Nelson

Beloved Minnesota sports broadcaster Marney Gellner battling cancer
Beloved Minnesota sports broadcaster Marney Gellner battling cancer /

Marney Gellner, the barrier-breaking Minnesota broadcaster employed by Bally Sports North, announced Tuesday morning that she has breast cancer. 

"About three weeks ago I found out that I have breast cancer. It was just detected in my yearly mammogram. I did not find a lump," said Gellner on the KFAN-FM 100.3 Power Trip Morning Show. "I had no idea, I just go in every year like we're told to do."

Gellner decided to go public with her diagnosis to help encourage others to get their yearly mammogram. 

"I'm going to be fine. There's good news in that it was caught very early. The cancer is not invasive," she explained. "It is non-invasive. It is all contained, so I feel really, really lucky and really, really blessed that I will just have a lumpectomy in a couple of weeks."

Gellner, 49, has spent her career in Minnesota covering the Twins, Timberwolves, Wild and Lynx as a jack of all trades sportscaster, serving as studio host, play-by-play announcer and sideline/field reporter. 

Gellner made history in March 2019 when she became the first woman to do play-by-play for a Minnesota Twins broadcast, calling games for Fox Sports North and WCCO Radio three days in a row. She went viral with her spring training home run calls, using a catchphrase "better call mama" after Twins players hit home runs. 

In December 2018 she became the second woman ever to serve as the lead television play-by-play announcer of an NBA game, doing so for a Timberwolves game. 

Gellner, who has spent the last 20 years at Fox Sports North/Bally Sports North, has received an outpouring of support on social media after announcer her cancer diagnosis. 

Published
Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen.  His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011.  Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play.  Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers.  Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17. 

Home/MN Timberwolves