Dean Pantazi

Dean Pantazi joined WPTA TV in December 1974 as a news and sports reporter and anchor.

He now is semi-retired since June 2020 but continues at WPTA in a part time sports contributor role.

Dean is a native of Chicago and graduate of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with a bachelor's degree in radio and television. While at SIU he was student sports director of the SIU Broadcasting Service, and did play by play of SIU football, basketball, and baseball games, including the 1971 College World Series, as well as anchored sports on the newscasts on the PBS TV station.

He worked in radio and TV news and sports in Elkhart and in radio news and sports in Fort Wayne before joining WPTA.

Dean worked a dual role in news and sports at WPTA before moving to strictly sports in 1985, and was sports director of WPTA from 1994 to 2012. Part of that role was anchoring sports on the MYTV affiliate in Detroit from 2008 to 2010.

He has covered six Sport Bowls, the World Series, the NBA Playoffs, and every type of event and championship involving area high school, college, and pro sports in Fort Wayne, including all of the title runs of the Komets title runs in his tenure, the Mad Ants title run in 2014, and the TinCaps title run in 2009.

Dean has also done extensive radio work in his time in Fort Wayne, most notably his tenure as co-host of Sportstalk on WOWO Radio from 1985 to 2001. He has also called high school football, basketball, and baseball for four different Fort Wayne area radio stations and served as a play by play voice for IPFW men's basketball.

He was inducted into the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame in 2011, into the Fort Wayne Komets Hall of Fame in 2018, and honored with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Gold Circle Award in 2020.

Dean has also been honored with the IHSAA Distinguished Media Service Award, the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Virgil Sweet Distinguished Service, and distinguished service awards from the Indiana Interscholastic Administrators Association, Northeast Indiana Baseball, and Fort Wayne Sports Corporation.

In 2022 the Allen County Athletic Conference named its boys conference basketball tournament trophy for Dean.

Dean and his wife Becky, a Fort Wayne native, have been married since 1978 and have a daughter, a son, their spouses, and three grandsons.