We have reached the start of the NFL season. It all gets started later tonight when the Superbowl Champion Rams host the Buffalo Bills. So, once again, my brain started to work overtime. I wanted to create another list, and this one will deal strictly with the NFL. The question I had for myself was, who are the top 5 NFL announcers of all time?
As with my list last week I have limited the choices to television, network announcers only. As was the case last week, the ranking process proved to be pretty tough. There have been so many talented people calling NFL games, the limitations of ranking just five, proved to be frustrating and maddening all at the same time. There have been many left off, due to limited space.
#5 (TIE) Curt Gowdy
Gowdy appears in a ‘gaudy’ 23 different Halls of Fame. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Not a bad little career huh? In fact, the basketball hall’s media award is named after Gowdy. He was considered the ‘broadcaster of everything’, calling 13 World Series and 16 All-Star games in baseball. Gowdy broadcast 9 Super Bowls and 24 Final Fours. Add in 14 Rose Bowls and 8 Olympic games to that already great resume.
Gowdy’s voice was unmistakable. A polished, yet extremely friendly voice. For a time, if Gowdy was on the call, viewers knew this was a game they had to tune into. His versatility was pretty much unmatched as well. It’s not easy to switch gears to other sports, while focused on one. Gowdy was not only able to do that, most of the time it was while his other season was still going on.
Gowdy was also the host of the long running “The American Sportsman” on ABC, which featured celebrities taking part in hunting and/or fishing trips. He was so associated with the outdoors that a state park in Wyoming was officially named for him in 1972. Curt Gowdy State Park is halfway between his high school hometown of Cheyenne and his college town of Laramie.
#5 (TIE) Jack Buck
While Jack Buck made his mark as a baseball announcer, with the St. Louis Cardinals and the networks, he was also quite a football play-by-play guy. Many of his iconic calls involve baseball, but he was on the scene for many huge moments in the NFL.
In 1964 he started calling NFL games on CBS, after a stint calling AFL games on ABC. Buck called mainly Chicago Bears games in the early part of his CBS career and then would switch to Dallas Cowboys coverage. He was there for the famous “Ice Bowl” championship game in 1967. Eventually the network got away from dedicated ‘team’ announcers, he would call regional games through 1974. Buck called several NFC Championship Games and also Super Bowl IV.
Where most know him from in the NFL, is his work on CBS Radio as the voice of Monday Night Football alongside Hank Stram. The two were paired together for nearly 2 decades. On CBS Radio, Buck would call 17 Super Bowls and some very memorable playoff moments.
His deep, gravelly voice was instantly recognizable. Buck’s calls, whether it be baseball or football were descriptive, informative and dramatic. He had a flare for those big moments, capturing a play in real time and making it iconic. Buck had a humor about him, self-deprecating at times, but there was no mistaking the wit and humor in his broadcasts.
#4 Dick Enberg
“Oh My!”, Enberg became well known for his work at UCLA, covering the John Wooden years as the team’s play-by-play voice. He also went on to do Rams football and California Angels baseball during his time on the West Coast.
During his nine years broadcasting Bruins basketball in the 1960s and ’70s, the Bruins won eight NCAA titles. He was tabbed to call the Jan. 20, 1968, Houston/UCLA game, dubbed “The Game of the Century,” in which the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak was snapped. It was the first NCAA regular-season game broadcast nationwide in prime time.
In 1975, he joined NBC Sports and for the next two plus decades, he would call, baseball, college hoops and football, the NBA, the US Open Golf tournament and tennis. Enberg would replace Curt Gowdy as the network’s main voice of the NFL and the Rose Bowl in 1979. He would call 8 Super Bowl games in his time at NBC. Enberg would move on to become one of the voices of the NFL on CBS in 2000.
Enberg was one of those broadcasters that was always smooth and well-polished. There was a uniqueness to his delivery and voice. There was something poetic about his phrasing, but man, could he call a game. From the landmark games like the Super Bowl to the ordinary regional game, they were always treated like the former. He was nicknamed ‘The Professor’ and listening/watching one of his games was like a history lesson indeed.
#3 Jim Nantz
“Hello Friends”, has greeted NFL fans on CBS for the better part of three decades when they tune in for a game. Nantz started in the network’s NFL booth back in 1991. He would then transition to the studio, to host the NFL Today, before re-entering the booth as the number one guy in 2004.
He maintains a hectic, yet enjoyable schedule. Typically, he’ll finish the NFL season and if CBS has the Super Bowl that year, he’ll call that, take a few weeks off, join the “Road to the Final Four” and then to the Masters. He joins Curt Gowdy, Kevin Harlan and Dick Enberg as the only play-by-play announcers to ever call both a Super Bowl and NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game. Nantz has called six Super Bowls for CBS, 30 final fours, has been a part of the Masters coverage since 1986.
His voice is perfect for each of the sports he calls. Friendly, engaging, enthusiastic and smooth. Nantz’s first Super Bowl call came in the game between the Colts and Bears in 2007. His first call started off in a historic way. Devin Hester became the first player in Super Bowl history to return the opening kick for a touchdown. “Gets past the first wave and here he goes, it’s Hester inside the 30, Hester’s going to take it all the way for a touchdown. No flags, 92 yards!” he described.
As I wrote about Nantz a couple of years ago, his pacing, timing and energy are all based upon the moment and based upon what he’s calling. You can’t be energetic all the time in golf. You have to be energetic all the time in football and college hoops. Nantz knows when and how to use that energy, effectively and in the right spots.
#2 AL MICHAELS
It’s no ‘miracle’ that Michaels appears high on this list. This man has seen and done so much in the sports broadcasting field that there is no need for need for any assists. Michaels has done it all, from the tremendous call in 1980, when a rag tag bunch of college kids from the United States knocked off the Russians enroute to a gold medal. To covering the after effects of an earthquake in San Francisco just ahead of Game 3 of the 1989 World Series. Michaels is the only play-by-play announcer to call the Super Bowl (11 times), World Series (8), NBA Finals (2) and host the Stanley Cup Final (3) for network television.
Michaels has carved out a wonderful career doing play-by-play of the NFL. He was with ABC, calling Monday Night Football from 1986-2005, then it was on to NBC’s Sunday Night Football from 2006 until he called the Super Bowl in LA last year. He will debut on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football package this season.
The great thing about Michaels is he has an innate sense of timing. Michaels can sense moments when he needs to be talking and when he can defer to his analyst. “Command” is something else he has on his broadcasts. You won’t see a game ‘get away’ from Michaels. He uses a unique brand of humor and sarcasm to augment what could be a mundane play or game overall. It’s not haphazard because he has the ability to sense the moments both are needed and not. I love the way he drops in a pop-culture reference or something involving the spread or the over/under in that game. Fans love those drop ins.
#1 PAT SUMMERALL
The former NFL place kicker carved out a nice little career for himself in the broadcast booth. To me, and yes, I grew up in the early 80’s, Summerall is the voice of football. Every big game, every big moment, there was Summerall and his partner John Madden. All you had to do was hear the duo and you knew, right then and there, this was a big and meaningful game. He also covered ‘The Masters’ for CBS until 1994 and worked on the network’s US Open Tennis coverage as well.
Summerall retired from football, and was hired by CBS in 1962 to work as a color commentator on the network’s NFL coverage. He initially partnered with Chris Schenkel on Giants games. It wasn’t until midway through the 1974 season that he shifted to play-by-play, first working with Tom Brookshier. That duo worked 3 Super Bowls together. In 1981 Summerall was teamed with Madden. It was a partnership that lasted 22 seasons over two networks. They became perhaps the best-known broadcast partners ever.
Summerall wound up working 11 Super Bowls, which was the most of all time, until Al Michaels worked last year’s game and equaled the total. He even pinch-hit on a Cubs/Pirates baseball game on WGN-TV, in 1987. Filling in for Harry Caray, who had suffered a stroke and was off the air while recovering.
To describe his style will take some effort. His voice was deep and powerful. Commanding and forceful. It was always in control too. Never has an announcer gotten more out of few words. He understood that on television, it wasn’t how much you said, it was the power of the words you did use. For example, whenever he’d call a Joe Montana to Jerry Rice touchdown pass, it was always something like, ‘Montana……Rice…. Touchdown!’ One of his more famous calls came in Super Bowl XVIII, when he described a Marcus Allen touchdown run this way.
‘Here’s Marcus Allen, cutting back up field. And Marcus Allen could be gone! 74 yards for Marcus Allen!’
Memorable without a scream or catchphrase. Less equaled more. That was Summerall in a nutshell.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
