CBS Philadelphia anchor Jim Donovan set the Guinness record for largest sock collection

At 9 years old, Jim Donovan would share with his parents his dreams of becoming a journalist. Around the time, he also flicked through the Guinness Book of World Records, thinking it’d be cool to set one himself one day.

Both dreams culminated last month, after Donovan retired from a nearly 40-year broadcast journalism career and set the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of socks.

Guinness World Records verified on Dec. 8 that 15-time Emmy winner is now the owner of the world’s largest sock collection at 1,531 pairs, many of which have eccentric designs, including Friends and Star Trek-themed socks, and every color of the rainbow. Donovan announced the achievement before his final day on-air at CBS Philadelphia on Dec. 19.

The previous record holder, Rex J. Pumphrey II, at 1,165 pairs of socks, achieved the feat just a few months before Donovan.

While Donovan said he’s immensely grateful for a ceremonious end to a long career — a feat he admits can be rare in the world of journalism — preparing his Guinness World Record application was also a difficult project.

“I’ve done major investigation pieces and consumer stories over four decades of TV, and this was the thing that nearly pushed me over the edge,” he said of the nearly 40 hours of inventory work required to painstakingly document each pair of socks.

Donovan was questioning himself at times when the hours of inventory work became overwhelming, but he remembered that this record was, in part, to thank his fans for their decades of support.

Guinness requires applicants to have two independent third-party experts oversee the counting of the world records. Two members of Thomas Jefferson University’s textile design program, Juliana Guglielmi-DeRosa and Jeneene Bailey-Allen, stepped up to facilitate Donovan’s counting. Together, the two experts and Donovan recorded the counting of socks for more than an hour inside CBS Philadelphia studios, without interruptions or editing of the footage, as required by Guinness.

Donovan would then embed pictures and descriptions of each sock into what became a 262-page spreadsheet so that Guinness inspectors could verify the count at a later date. During the final count, Guglielmi-DeRosa and Bailey-Allen gifted Donovan an additional pair of socks, bringing the unofficial total to 1,532, but there was no way he was going to redo the spreadsheet, Donovan said.

“I just remember when I was a kid looking in that Guinness World Records book and thinking, ‘Boy, it would be cool to do this.’ And here I am now, 59 years old, and I finally checked off one of those kid bucket list items,” Donovan said.

Storing thousands of socks is no small feat, either. Folded and stacked inside dozens of bins, with 48 pairs per bin, Donovan has an entire closet dedicated to the socks. Each box contains different categories, from animals to food to holidays, and more.

The first openly LGBTQ+ news anchor in Philadelphia, over his 22 years at CBS Philadelphia Donovan garnered a loyal fan base, with whom he frequently chatted during his daily Facebook livestreams outside of his regular broadcasts. Around eight years ago, fans noticed Donovan’s penchant for socks with bold colors and designs, and started sending the journalist socks to wear on-air.

During the winter holidays, it was Santa socks; birthdays, it was socks with his face on them; and randomly, folks would get creative, Donovan said, sending him Dr. Spock socks (complete with Spock ears), flamingos playing golf, and Superman socks with a cape.

In his final week on-air at CBS Philadelphia, the station celebrated each day as part of “Week of Jim.” In retirement, Donovan plans to spend more time with his father, who lives on Staten Island, N.Y., and dive into volunteering and nonprofit work.

Now he’ll be enjoying retirement as a world-record holder. Donovan said he’s even starting to get messages from other Guinness World Record holders welcoming him to the club.