All-Time Network Sportscasters

From unclebarky.com

All hail the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, or simply the Summer Olympics if you prefer. They’ll be a dominant force on NBC from Aug. 8-24th.

All of this athletic pomp and pageantry prompts a list of the 10 most influential and capable network sportscasters of all time. We’re excluding regional hits, so sorry about that, Harry Carey, Ernie Harwell, Jack Brickhouse and Jack Buck among others. Let’s play ball.

10. Keith Jackson — Whoa Nelly, he keeps retiring and unretiring. But ABC’s original Monday Night Football play-by-play guy still has a big strapping buck of a voice that raises pulses during major college football matchups. He also worked a good number of Olympics telecasts back when ABC owned the broadcast rights.

9. Pat Summerall — The best ex-jock ever to hit a broadcast booth excelled as a kicker for the New York Giants before famously teaming with Tom Brookshier and later John Madden as the resident A-list pro football announcer for both CBS and Fox. His minimalist approach meshed well with gabbier sidekicks. And he also covered the premier golf and tennis tournaments carried on CBS.

8. Brent Musberger — The former minor league umpire first came to prominence as CBS’ NFL Today studio show host alongside Irv Cross, Phyllis George and Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. But he soon began going to the games themselves, flexing a “You are looking live . . . ” tagline at a wide variety of major events. Bounced by CBS in 1990, he rebounded to ABC/ESPN, where he’s still calling major college games as part of a Saturday night prime-time package. Some can’t stand him, but he’s stood the test of time.

7. Jim McKay — The late great ABC broadcaster first branded himself as host of the network’s innovative Wide World of Sports series, where “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” became his lasting catchphrase. He also was a key player in coverage of 12 Olympics, most notably the tragic 1972 games in Munich, where 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by terrorists. “They’re all gone,” a drained McKay said somberly after 14 consecutive hours on the air. He capped his career as a “special correspondent” for NBC during that network’s coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

6. Curt Gowdy — People forget how big he was, serving as NBC’s go-to guy for virtually every major sports event from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s after announcing the first five seasons of the American Football League on ABC. Gowdy covered World Series, Super Bowls, Rose Bowls, the Olympics, NCAA Final Four basketball tournaments, you name it. He also was at the mike when Hank Aaron hit his historic 715th home run on April 8, 1974. Gowdy’s American Sportsman series for ABC was another long-distance runner. And he hosted PBS’ well-regarded The Way It Was sports anthology series, which reunited famous athletes involved in classic sports matchups.

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