Back in high school, Héctor Lozano was a blossoming soccer player as a left fullback at Farragut. He also played on a club team, Atlas, that would record its games on a camcorder. The players would gather at someone’s house, order pizza and rewatch each one.
Lozano injured his ankle in one of those games and was out of commission. The man holding the camcorder told Lozano he had a microphone and suggested Lozano do play-by-play while he was recovering.
“I’m like, ‘Why not?’ ” Lozano told the Sun-Times. “Then we started doing interviews postgame with my co-players, and we really enjoyed it. Just talking crap about my friends on camera. We would make it really funny.”
Eventually, Farragut began offering a TV production class, and Lozano signed up.
“It was like a light bulb went on,” he said.
Today, the 58-year-old Lozano is the longest-tenured active Chicago sports anchor, in his 31st year. Since 2021, he has appeared on Telemundo Chicago’s signature newscast, “Noticiero Telemundo Chicago,” and this week he begins leading the station’s coverage of the World Cup. NBCUniversal’s Telemundo is the exclusive Spanish‑language home for every match.
“I haven’t missed a World Cup game in over 30 years,” Lozano said. “It’s the biggest World Cup in history: 104 games, 48 teams. A lot more to cover, and it’s gonna be busy. The first two weeks of group-stage action, there’s gonna be three, four games a day.”
How can he possibly watch them all?
“I don’t know,” he said, “but I’m gonna make an effort.”
Lozano’s story is the story of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States looking for a better life. He was born in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, in a family of 10, with three brothers and four sisters. His father, Juan, arrived in America first. Héctor came when he was 11.
The family first lived in Pilsen, then Little Village. Lozano can name the nearby intersection for each home: Cermak and California, Cermak and Wood, 22nd and California, 30th and Christiana. The first house had one floor and an attic, which Juan turned into the boys’ living space.
“We didn’t have everything,” Lozano said, “but we never lacked something.”
Juan worked as a color matcher in Color Communications Inc.’s factory, producing samples. He instilled in Héctor his love for soccer, taking him and his brothers to Douglass Park on weekends. Later, Héctor joined his father at the factory while attending Columbia College, where he studied broadcasting.
“I really liked the job, but it didn’t pay much,” Lozano said. “And I had other aspirations.”
Lozano began his broadcasting career in radio at WIND, which was Spanish at the time. After the station gained the rights to an international soccer game at Soldier Field, management realized it didn’t have anyone who had done play-by-play. Lozano, who was a part-timer, raised his hand.
Never mind that he hadn’t done it since high school. He kept that quiet. All the station needed to know was that Lozano had called a soccer game before, and he pulled it off with aplomb.
That led to more opportunities, including calling the Bulls’ 1992-93 and ’93-94 seasons with Héctor Molina. Lozano was on the mic for John Paxson’s shot that won the ’93 NBA Finals and Hue Hollins’ infamous foul call on Scottie Pippen during a ’94 playoff series against the Knicks.
“Getting fricking beer on my head at Madison Square Garden,” Lozano said of Knicks fans’ celebration after the Game 5 victory. “We didn’t have a booth; we didn’t sit courtside. We were in a corner. And then they were just … popcorn and beer.”
Lozano moved to TV in 1995. WGBO had become an affiliate of Univision and launched a news department led by Jackie Gallardo, who was looking for a lead sports anchor. The timing couldn’t have been better because WIND had just let Lozano go amid staff cuts.
But radio wouldn’t leave his life. In 2015, the Bears moved their Spanish-language broadcasts to Univision radio affiliate WRTO, and Lozano was on the call. In 2016, the Blackhawks began airing games on the station, and Lozano called them. In 2017, the Fire returned to WRTO, and Lozano called them, too.
“At one point in the year, maybe four, five months, I would not have a day off,” Lozano said. “But it was a blast doing all those sports.”
Lozano fell victim again to staff cuts in 2021 — Univision cut every sports department in the country after the pandemic — and again he quickly found a new home. Telemundo had been inquiring about Lozano’s interest in moving for a couple of years. After being let go, Lozano called then-NBC 5/Telemundo Chicago (WSNS) president David Doebler. He was still interested.
“My brother says, ‘You must have a horseshoe or a rabbit’s foot up your butt,” Lozano said. “I said, ‘Yeah. You get the opportunity, but then you have to take advantage of the opportunity.”
That he has. And along the way, he has become a pillar in Chicago’s Hispanic community.
“He’s coming into people’s living rooms for 31 years,” said Kevin Cross, president of NBC 5/Telemundo Chicago. “That builds a connection that you can see when he’s out and about. That’s the key when it comes to local television: How do you connect with your audience?”
“I grew up in Pilsen and Little Village,” Lozano said. “You don’t get more Mexican than that.”
Telemundo Chicago’s World Cup coverage
Telemundo (WSNS-Channel 44) will air 92 games live. The national Telemundo Deportes team will have crews in all 16 host cities, plus studio shows in Mexico City, Miami and New York, providing pregame, halftime and postgame coverage.
• The anchor-reporter duo of Héctor Lozano and Raúl Delgado and the “Noticiero Telemundo Chicago” crew will keep viewers apprised of World Cup happenings. Lozano also will share his “100 Datos de Mundial” (“100 Facts about the World Cup”).
• Each weekday at 5 a.m., “Noticiero Telemundo Chicago: Primera Edición” anchor Mariana Reyes and meteorologist Doctora Juliet Perdigón will provide the latest news and weather.