Curt Gowdy

It is a rare day when I would ever say anything to console the heart of a Boston Red Sox fan, but the recent passing of Hall of Fame broadcaster Curt Gowdy is not something I can ignore. If you are older than I, you might remember his AFL football broadcasts and the American Sportsman interview series. That was before my time, but I distinctly recall his voice on the NBC baseball Game of the Week, AFC football, NCAA basketball, and a number of other broadcasts where he was a fixture in my childhood in the 70's. Gowdy was also the voice of the Boston Red Sox from 1951-1966, and he broadcast Yankee games in '49 and '50.

There probably will ever be a sports announcer with his breadth of excellence.

Over the course of a career that stretched into the 1980s, he also covered Major League Baseball and college basketball; called 13 World Series, 16 baseball All-Star Games, 9 Super Bowls, 14 Rose Bowls, 8 Olympic Games and 24 NCAA Final Fours; and hosted ABC's long-running American Sportsman series.

In 1970 Gowdy became the first sportscaster to receive the George Foster Peabody Award. He was given the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, the Pete Rozelle Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a lifetime achievement Emmy in 1992, and was selected to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995. Gowdy was president of the Basketball Hall of Fame for several years, and that institution's Curt Gowdy Award (presented annually to outstanding basketball writers and broadcasters) is named after him.

I still recall his cowboy hat and distinctive tone. He was literally the voice of AFL/AFC football, he was a baseball Hall of Fame inductee in the announcer wing, and he covered a slew of NCAA Final Fours. He didn't simply cover a variety of sports- he was the guy who was in the booth for Superbowls and World Series games. He called Carlton Fisk's historic game 6 home run in 1975 against the Reds and the Jet's upset of the Colts in Superbowl III in 1969 to name just two. In addition to all that, by all accounts he was a decent, fine human being. We may never see another like him.

Comments

[Michigan-Matt]

Nice tribute to Curt. Thank you.

I remember laying down in front of the TV set on late Sunday afternoons and listening to his excited reactions when fellow hunters bagged an elk, landed a blue marlin, or shot some upland birds. Mr Gowdy's infectious enthusiasm spurred me on to do better in baseball, learn how to hunt, and revel in just being an American. He taought me about patriotism and this great country of ours without mentioning a single political party or principle. I never knew his politics, never knew what he thought about the VN war, or the Carter boycott of the Olympics, never even cared if he was a journalist --to me, he was just an avid sportsman who could tell a good story. The world is better because of Curt's passion, advocacy of outdoor sports, and his unique role in shaping millions of American boys into men today. America has lost more in his passing than a thousand Cronkites or Murrows or Rathers will ever contribute.