 Summerall in 2008 | |||||||||||||
| No. 21, 88 | |||||||||||||
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| Position: | Placekicker | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born: | (1930-05-10)May 10, 1930 Lake City, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Died: | April 16, 2013(2013-04-16) (aged 82) Dallas, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight: | 228 lb (103 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| High school: | Columbia (Lake City, Florida) | ||||||||||||
| College: | Arkansas (1949–1951) | ||||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1952: 4th round, 45th pick | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
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George Allen "Pat"Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American professionalfootball player and televisionsportscaster who worked forCBS,Fox, andESPN. In addition to football, he announced majorgolf andtennis events. Summerall announced 16Super Bowls on network television (more than anyone else), 26Masters Tournaments, and 21US Opens.[1] He contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts onCBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst. As of March 2025, his daughterSusie Wiles isPresidentDonald Trump'schief of staff.
Summerall played football for theArkansas Razorbacks and then in theNational Football League (NFL) from1952 through1961. He was drafted by theDetroit Lions and played withBobby Layne. His best playing years were as a kicker with theNew York Giants. In 1962 he joined CBS as acolor commentator. He worked withTom Brookshier and thenJohn Madden on NFL telecasts for CBS and Fox.[2] Retiring after the2002 NFL season, he occasionally announced games, especially those near his Texas home.
Summerall was named the National Sportscaster of the Year by theNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 1977, and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1994. That year, he also received thePete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from thePro Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1999. The "Pat Summerall Award" has been presented since 2006 during Super Bowl weekend at the NFL's headquarters hotel "to a deserving recipient who through their career has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the job that the name Pat Summerall represents."
AtColumbia High School, Lake City, Florida, Summerall playedfootball,tennis,baseball, andbasketball.[3] Basketball was his favorite sport; he was recognized as an All-State selection in basketball and football.[4] He was inducted into theFHSAA Hall of Fame and was later named to theFHSAA's All-Century Team.
Summerall playedcollege football from 1949 to 1951 at theUniversity of Arkansas, where he playeddefensive end,tight end, andplacekicker positions for theArkansas Razorbacks. He graduated in 1953 majoring in Russian history, according to CBS News.[citation needed]
Summerall spent ten years as a professional football player in theNational Football League, primarily as a placekicker. TheDetroit Lions drafted Summerall as a fourth-round draft choice in the1952 NFL draft.[5] Summerall played the pre-season with the Lions before breaking his arm, which ended the year for him.[6] After that season, he was traded and went on to play for theChicago Cardinals from1953 to1957 and theNew York Giants from1958 to1961, during which he was a part ofThe Greatest Game Ever Played. His best professional year statistically was1959, when Summerall scored 90 points on 30-for-30 (100%) extra-point kicking and 20-for-29 (69%) field goal kicking.[citation needed]
Summerall's most memorable professional moment may well have been at the very end of the December 14,1958 regular-season finale between his Giants and theCleveland Browns atYankee Stadium. Going into the game, the Browns were in first place in the Eastern Conference, holding a one-game lead over the second-place Giants. In that era, there was no overtime during regular-season games, standings ties were broken by a playoff, and there were no wild-card teams. This meant that only the Eastern Conference champion would qualify for the NFL Championship Game to be held two weeks later, and it meant that the Giants had to win just to force a tiebreaker playoff game. The Browns, on the other hand, needed only a tie to clinch the Eastern championship. As time was running out, the Giants and Browns were tied, 10–10, a situation that, as indicated, favored the Browns. The Giants got barely into Cleveland territory, then sent out Summerall to try for a tiebreaking 49-yard field goal. To add to the drama, there were swirling winds and snow. Summerall, a straight-ahead kicker, made the field goal with just two minutes to play, keeping the Giants alive for another week (they defeated Cleveland a week later, 10–0, in the Eastern Conference tiebreaker playoff before losing thesudden-death league championship final to Baltimore the week after that).
The Giants' offensive coach,Vince Lombardi, was against sending Summerall in[7] (Summerall missed a 31-yard attempt a few minutes earlier), then gleefully greeted Summerall as he came off the field, "You son of a bitch, you can’t kick it that far!"[8][9]Sports Illustrated ran the story as one of its primary articles the next week, with a leading photograph showing the football heading between the uprights through the snow.[10] His last professional game was the December 31,1961 NFL Championship Game held atLambeau Field inGreen Bay, Wisconsin. Lombardi'sGreen Bay Packers defeated Summerall's Giants, 37–0, holding New York to just six first downs. Summerall was not a factor in that game.[citation needed]
The urban legend was his nickname became "Pat" because of the abbreviation for "point after touchdown" that a field-goal kicker was credited for in a game summary. But in a 1997Dallas Morning News story, Summerall said after his parents divorced, he was taken in by an aunt and uncle who had a son named Mike. "My aunt and uncle just started calling me Pat to go with their Mike", Summerall would say, referencing frequently named characters in Irish jokes told during that time.[11]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Won theNFL Championship | |
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | GP | Field Goals | Extra Points | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FGA | FGM | Pct | XPA | XPM | Pct | ||||
| 1952 | DET | 2 | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 |
| 1953 | CHC | 12 | 24 | 9 | 37.5 | 23 | 23 | 100.0 | 50 |
| 1954 | CHC | 12 | 18 | 8 | 44.4 | 23 | 21 | 91.3 | 45 |
| 1955 | CHC | 11 | 19 | 8 | 42.1 | 25 | 23 | 92.0 | 47 |
| 1956 | CHC | 12 | 22 | 10 | 45.5 | 30 | 30 | 100.0 | 60 |
| 1957 | CHC | 12 | 17 | 6 | 35.3 | 26 | 24 | 92.3 | 42 |
| 1958 | NYG | 12 | 23 | 12 | 52.2 | 30 | 28 | 93.3 | 64 |
| 1959 | NYG | 12 | 29 | 20 | 69.0 | 30 | 30 | 100.0 | 90 |
| 1960 | NYG | 12 | 26 | 13 | 50.0 | 32 | 32 | 100.0 | 71 |
| 1961 | NYG | 14 | 34 | 14 | 41.2 | 46 | 46 | 100.0 | 88 |
| Career | 111 | 212 | 100 | 47.2 | 265 | 257 | 97.0 | 557 | |
| Year | Team | GP | Field Goals | Extra Points | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FGA | FGM | Pct | XPA | XPM | Pct | ||||
| 1952 | DET | 0 | did not play due to injury | ||||||
| 1958 | NYG | 2 | 2 | 2 | 100.0 | 3 | 3 | 100.0 | 9 |
| 1959 | NYG | 1 | 3 | 3 | 100.0 | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | 10 |
| 1961 | NYG | 1 | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 |
| Career | 4 | 5 | 5 | 100.0 | 4 | 4 | 100.0 | 19 | |
In the early 1960s, Summerall was the morning host onWCBS (AM) radio in New York City. He left the job when WINS went all-news in 1965. He also co-hosted thesyndicatedNFL Films seriesThis Week in Pro Football in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Summerall was also associated with a production company inDallas from about 1998 through 2005 which was called Pat Summerall Productions. He was featured in and hosted various production shows, such as Summerall Success Stories and Champions of Industry. These qualified production segments would air on theFox News Channel and later,CNN Headline News. During the mid-1990s, Summerall hosted the "Summerall-Aikman"Cowboys report with quarterbackTroy Aikman. Summerall served as the host ofSports Stars of Tomorrow andFuture Phenoms, two nationally syndicated high school sports shows based out ofFort Worth, Texas.[citation needed] Following their dismissal of announcerHarry Caray in 1969, theSt. Louis Cardinals baseball team considered hiring Summerall to be their new radio voice.
After retiring from football, Summerall was hired byCBS Sports in1962 to work as acolor commentator on the network'sNFL coverage. CBS initially paired Summerall withChris Schenkel on Giants games; three years later he shifted to working withJim Gibbons onWashington Redskins games. In1968, after CBS abandoned the practice of assigning dedicated announcing crews to particular NFL teams, Summerall ascended to the network's lead national crew, pairing withJack Buck and thenRay Scott. For the postgame coverage of the very firstSuper Bowl at the end of the1967 season (which wassimulcast by CBS andNBC), thetrophy presentation ceremony was handled by CBS' Summerall (who worked as a reporter, while CBS' game coverage was called by Ray Scott,Jack Whitaker andFrank Gifford) and NBC'sGeorge Ratterman.
In 1969, Summerall took part in NBC's coverage ofSuper Bowl III. NBC used Summerall to provide an "NFL perspective" on the coverage. This was due in part to the fact that NBC was at the time, the network television provider of theAmerican Football League (whereas CBS was the network television provider for thepre-mergerNational Football League). In return, forCBS Radio's coverage of Super BowlsI,II andIV, they used Tom Hedrick, normally the radio voice of theKansas City Chiefs, to provide an "AFL perspective" for their coverage.[citation needed]
Midway through the1974 NFL season, CBS shifted Summerall from color to play-by-play. The network's #1 NFL crew now consisted of Summerall and analystTom Brookshier[citation needed] (with whom he had previously worked onThis Week in Pro Football), and the colorful Summerall-Brookshier duo worked three Super Bowls (X,XII, andXIV) together. Summerall, Brookshier,NFL on CBS producer Bob Wussler, andMiami Dolphins ownerJoe Robbie appeared as themselves during the 1977 filmBlack Sunday, which was filmed on location at theOrange Bowl inMiami duringSuper Bowl X.[citation needed]
In1981, Summerall was teamed with formerOakland Raiders coachJohn Madden, a pairing that would last for 22 seasons on two networks and become one of the most well-known partnerships in television sportscasting history. Summerall was initially opposed, preferring his longtime broadcast partner (and close friend) Brookshier, but CBS executives wanted more excitement in the booth and thought Brookshier and Summerall working together exacerbated their respective issues with alcohol.[2] Summerall and Madden were first teamed on a November 25,1979 broadcast of aMinnesota Vikings–Tampa Bay Buccaneers game due to Brookshier having a family commitment.[12] While the two were paired on CBS, they called Super BowlsXVI,XVIII,XXI,XXIV, andXXVI together.
In contrast to John Madden's lively, verbose persona, Summerall continued the traditionally minimalist delivery of predecessor as CBS's main NFL announcer,Ray Scott. For example, he usually called aJoe Montana toJerry Rice touchdown pass with simple calls like "Montana......Rice.... Touchdown!"
His last game alongside Madden for CBS (before theNFC television contract moved over toFox) was the1993 NFC Championship Game (which saw theDallas Cowboys defeat theSan Francisco 49ers inIrving, Texas to go toSuper Bowl XXVIII against theBuffalo Bills inAtlanta).
Summerall also covered other events such asABA[13] for CBS during this period. Through 1966, he hosted a morning drive-time music/talk program forWCBS-AM radio in New York.
Summerall also broadcastPGA Tour golf tournaments on CBS, including theMasters Tournament,[citation needed] as well as theUS Open of tennis, during his tenure at CBS withTony Trabert, and he was the play-by-play announcer for the1974 NBA Finals (working alongsideRick Barry andRod Hundley), CBS' first season broadcasting theNBA on CBS. In 1975, Summerall hosted thePan American Games in Mexico, and in 1976 he teamed with Tom Brookshier to call some heavyweightboxing matches for CBS.[14]
Summerall broadcast his first Masters in1968, when he anchored the coverage at hole 18. In1983, Summerall replacedVin Scully (who had left CBS to work forNBC on theirMajor League Baseball andgolf coverage) in the 18th hole tower role (a role that Scully was in since1975). Summerall's broadcast partner during this period wasKen Venturi.
From1969–1973, Summerall broadcastCBS'National Invitation Tournament coverage withDon Criqui. In 1985, Summerall once again called college basketball, workingNCAA men's tournament games for CBS withLarry Conley.
In1970, Summerall and then-Boston Bruins' TV announcerDon Earle did a short postgame segment from inside the team's dressing room at the end ofCBS' coverage of the fourth (and what turned out to be the final) game of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals.WSBK-38, the Bruins' TV flagship at the time, simulcast the CBS coverage and did a longer post-game locker-room segment after CBS' coverage ended. AfterBobby Orr scored the championship-winning goal after just 40 seconds, so the story went, Summerall turned to Bobby's father, Doug Orr (who was reportedly, too nervous to go back to his seat from the Bruins' dressing room for the start of overtime) and yelled over the crowd in the stands above "Mr. Orr, your son has scored and Boston has won the Stanley Cup!" Doug Orr is said to have told Summerall "I know Boston scored, but we didn't see it! What makes you think my son scored?" Summerall supposedly replied "Because they wouldn't be yelling this loudly if(Phil) Esposito (another high-scoring Boston player of the era) had scored!"[citation needed]
Summerall also called at least oneProfessional Bowlers Association event, which was the1975 Brunswick World Open.[15]
On April 15, 1987, Summerall did color commentary alongsideSteve Stone[16] for aChicago Cubs–Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game onWGN-TV. This was during time period in which the Cubs' normal television announcer,Harry Caray, was recovering from astroke. Thus, for about the first two months of the1987 season, WGN featured a series of celebrity guest announcers on game telecasts while Caray recuperated.[17]
He also broadcast theUS Open Tennis Tournament forCBS withTony Trabert for 25 years.
Summerall's last on-air assignment for CBS Sports was the1994 Masters Tournament. Summerall signed off the broadcast thus, surrounded by the other CBS commentators that were working the tournament:
So, on behalf of our entire broadcast group, for the last time, I'm Pat Summerall saying[to the others] "So long"?[the other commentators speak all at once, wishing Pat well] Thanks, guys.[to the audience] I'll miss you.
In1994, theFox network surprised NFL fans by outbidding CBS for theNFC broadcast package. One of the network's first moves was to hire Summerall and Madden as its lead announcing team. While at Fox, the pair called Super BowlsXXXI,XXXIII, andXXXVI together. The long-time partnership ended after Super Bowl XXXVI inearly 2002, as Summerall had announced he would be retiring from announcing and Madden's contract had expired.
Here comes one of greater importance if he makes it. And it's right down the pipe.Adam Vinatieri...no time on the clock and thePatriots have wonSuper Bowl XXXVI. Unbelievable.
— Summerall's final Super Bowl call, Adam Vinatieri's game winningfield goal on February 3, 2002.
Between CBS and Fox, Summerall called 11 Super Bowls on television play-by-play, a record matched byAl Michaels withSuper Bowl LVI in 2022.
Summerall was lured out of retirement and re-signed with Fox for the2002 season. However, since Madden had left to take over the color commentator position onMonday Night Football fromDan Fouts andDennis Miller forABC and Fox had promotedJoe Buck to be its number one NFL play-by-play voice (Buck was initially partnered withCris Collinsworth and, since 2004,Troy Aikman, who both replaced Madden as Fox's lead NFL color commentators), Summerall was paired withBrian Baldinger on regional telecasts. Most of the games Summerall covered featured theDallas Cowboys, due in part to his residency in the city. One of the games Summerall called was the Cowboys' game against theSeattle Seahawks atTexas Stadium, in whichEmmitt Smith brokeWalter Payton's career rushing yardage record. Summerall was joined byDaryl Johnston, who at the time was working as Fox's #2 color man withDick Stockton and who was a longtime teammate of Smith's with the Cowboys, for this game.[citation needed]
Summerall retired again following the 2002 season. In2006, to prepare him for his return to announcing at theCotton Bowl Classic, he served as a substitute forKenny Albert alongside Baldinger for the Week 8 (October 29) game between the eventual NFC championChicago Bears and theSan Francisco 49ers.[18] Summerall returned for one game the following year to take Stockton's place alongside Baldinger and provide the play-by-play for the December 9,2007 game between theCincinnati Bengals andSt. Louis Rams inCincinnati.
From2007 until2010, Summerall appeared as the play-by-play voice of the network's coverage of the Cotton Bowl. Summerall teamed withBrian Baldinger on the 2007–09 Cotton Bowl Classic telecasts, and worked withDaryl Johnston on the2010 game (his final play-by-play assignment of any kind) between Ole Miss andOklahoma State. In2011, Summerall appeared on the pregame coverage of the Cotton Bowl.
In the 2000s, Summerall providedvoiceover sponsorship credits for the CBS Masters golf telecasts, and voice-overs for game coverage onNFL Network. He also provided game commentary for theGolden Tee Golf video game series and narrated the first episode of theWrestleMania Rewind series for theWWE Network (a role that would be assumed byGary Thorne upon Summerall's death).
Summerall called several preseason and early regular-season NFL games for theESPN network in2004, substituting for regular announcerMike Patrick while the latter recovered from heart surgery.
As previously mentioned, Summerall hosted this syndicated program dedicated to high school and collegiate athletics from 2005 to 2012.Charles Davis assumed hosting duties in 2012.
TheNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association named Summerall National Sportscaster of the Year in 1977, and inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1994. Summerall was the 1994 recipient of thePete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, bestowed by thePro Football Hall of Fame "for longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football". In 1999, he was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame.[19]
Since 2006, the "Pat Summerall Award" has been presented at the annual Legends for Charity Luncheon given on Super Bowl weekend at the NFL's headquarters hotel in the host city. The award is given "to a deserving recipient who through their career has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the job that the name Pat Summerall represents." Recipients have includedJames Brown (2006),Greg Gumbel (2007),Jim Nantz (2008),Chris Berman (2009),Cris Collinsworth (2010), the entireFox NFL crew (2011),Al Michaels (2012),Archie Manning (2013),Michael Strahan (2014),Joe Buck (2015),John Madden (2016),Rich Eisen (2017),Tony Dungy (2018),Bill Cowher (2019),Jim Kelly (2020),Erin Andrews (2022),Howie Long (2023). No award was given in 2021.[20][21][22]
For many years Summerall was a commercial spokesperson forTrue Value, often ending advertisements with his tag line "and tell 'em Pat Summerall sent you".[23] Ironically, his long-time broadcast partner Madden was the spokesperson forAce Hardware, True Value's main competitor in the independent hardware store market. Summerall served as the longtime radio spokesman for the Dux Beds company, a Swedish maker of mattresses, and its "Duxiana" stores.
Summerall started doing work as a commentator for theMadden NFL video game franchise in the gameJohn Madden Football '92. His voice was subsequently featured in all the games in theMadden franchise from1994–2002.[24]
Summerall provided commentary for75 Seasons: The History of the NFL.[25]
Summerall also provided commentary, alongside Madden, onCartoon Network's annual Super Bowl parodies,The Big Game, from 1998 through 2001.
Summerall was name-checked onThe Simpsons in the episode "Springfield Up", where his caricature and name appear on the cover of a book held byHomer Simpson titled "Smut Yuks." Summerall and his partner John Madden also appeared in (and lent their voices to) theSimpsons episode "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", which premiered following the duo's broadcast ofSuper Bowl XXXIII on Fox in 1999, and on the same night, a caricature of Summerall appeared on theFamily Guy premiere episode "Death Has a Shadow", although in theFamily Guy episode, he was voiced byWally Wingert. The pair was also featured in the movieThe Replacements, calling the games of the Washington Sentinels on their run to the playoffs. Summerall is referenced in the Season 4Gilmore Girls episode, "The Lorelais' First Day at Yale."
Summerall appeared in the music video forForever the Sickest Kids' 2010 single "She Likes (Bittersweet Love)".
Summerall was married to Cheri Summerall. With his first wife Katherine (married 1955 - 1995), they had three children, including political consultant andWhite House chief of staffSusie Wiles, and 10 grandchildren.[26][27][28]
Summerall was aChristian.[29] In his book,Summerall: On and Off the Air, he wrote about his faith and his recovery from alcoholism saying "My thirst for alcohol was replaced by a thirst for knowledge about faith and God. I began reading the Bible regularly at the Betty Ford treatment center, and it became a part of my daily life."[26]
Pat Summerall's life began with a critical malformation that would have otherwise prevented him from living the life that he is known for. Fortunately a doctor performed the life-changing surgery soon after birth.[30][31][32]
During the1990 season, Summerall was hospitalized with ableeding ulcer after vomiting on a plane during a flight after aChicago Bears–Washington Redskins game, and was out for a considerable amount of time. WhileVerne Lundquist replaced Summerall on games with Madden,Jack Buck (who was atCBS during the time as the network's leadMajor League Baseball announcer) was added as a regular NFL broadcaster to fill-in.
In the spring of 2004, Summerall, a recoveringalcoholic, underwent alivertransplant.[1] Summerall at one point preached a sermon at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas.
In 2006, Pat Summerall underwent cataract surgery, and had anintraocular lens implanted.[33]
In January 2008, Summerall had ahip replacement surgery. On June 19, 2008, he was hospitalized forinternal bleeding caused by a new medicine he was taking.[34]
In September 2018,James Acho filed a claim against the NFL for football-related dementia on behalf of Cheri Summerall, Summerall's widow.[35] The lawsuit was settled a year later.[36]
Summerall checked into St. Paul University Hospital in Dallas, Texas, for surgery on a broken hip.[1] He died there on April 16, 2013, ofcardiac arrest at age 82.[37] After his death,Jerry Jones referred to Summerall as "royalty in the broadcast booth" while Madden called him "a great broadcaster and a great man" and added that "Pat Summerall is the voice of football and always will be."[38] Fellow broadcastersJim Nantz andVerne Lundquist also made statements on Summerall's life.[1]
A few days later, CBS Sports presented a tribute to Summerall during their coverage of theRBC Heritage golf event. Nantz andGary McCord presented highlights of his life and career – both as a player and at CBS – ending with his 1994 Masters sign-off.[39]During aFox NASCAR broadcast,Chris Myers paid tribute to Summerall on behalf ofFox.
Summerall was interred at theDallas–Fort Worth National Cemetery.
| Preceded by first lead analyst | Lead game analyst,NFL on CBS 1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lead game analyst,NFL on CBS 1970–1973 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lead play-by-play announcer,The NFL on CBS 1974–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Play-by-play announcer,NBA Finals 1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by None | Lead play-by-play announcer,NFL on Fox 1994–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Super Bowl television play-by-play announcer (NFC package carrier) 1975–2001 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
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| Other | |
