Posted by chicagomedia.org on December 26, 2008 at 09:53:56:
Amy Freeze sets ESPN's 'Monday Night Football' crew straight
By William Hageman | Tribune staff reporter
8:19 AM CST, December 24, 2008
Let there be no doubt: The last name of WFLD-Ch. 32 meteorologist Amy Freeze really is Freeze.
The question came up Monday night at Soldier Field when the ESPN crew seemed to have some doubts.
Her report on the temperature at kickoff--a balmy 2 degrees--had popped up on the Soldier Field Jumbotron.
"When I said the temperature, people went crazy," Freeze says. "When that happened, the ESPN guys, I guess, said something like, 'It's really cold, and Amy Freeze--yeah, right, that's not her real name ...' and they made a couple references to it."
A sideline producer suggested Freeze set the ESPN crew straight. Freeze eventually found ESPN's Suzy Kolber on the sidelines.
"I said, 'I'm Amy Freeze,' and I held up my name tag," Freeze says. "And she goes, 'Oh, OK.' I said, 'I have my driver's license,' and she said, 'Oh, I think we're going to need a birth certificate on this one.' We joked a little bit ... and I guess she used it as part of one of her reports."
Freeze later got a call from her father--yes, Batman fans, Mr. Freeze called--"and he said it was pretty cool."
Amy Freeze has been hearing about her name all her life.
"A gym teacher called me Annie Freeze. I've had tons of nicknames--Frostbite, Freezer."
Her name even got her a mention on "Jeopardy!" earlier this year.
"I have no clue how it happened," she says. "I think it's some brilliant researcher for 'Jeopardy!' who lives here in Chicago. First, it's cool to be in 'Jeopardy.' But when the guy gets it right ..."
The "Jeopardy!" answer: "Appropriately, Amy Freeze was this age when she became a meteorologist for WFLD in January 2007." And the response, in the form of a question? "What is 32?"