Curt Gowdy | |
|---|---|
 Gowdy in the early 1950s. | |
| Born | Curtis Edward Gowdy (1919-07-31)July 31, 1919 Green River, Wyoming, U.S. |
| Died | February 20, 2006(2006-02-20) (aged 86) Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Alma mater | University of Wyoming, 1942 |
| Occupation | Sportscaster |
| Spouse | Jerre Dawkins (m. 1949–2006; his death) |
| Children | 2 sons, 1 daughter |
| Awards | |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  U.S. Army Air Forces |
| Years of service | 1942–1943 |
Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an Americansportscaster. He calledBoston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily forNBC Sports andABC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s. He coined the nickname "The Granddaddy of Them All" for theRose Bowl Game, taking the moniker fromCheyenne Frontier Days in his native Wyoming.
The son of Ruth and Edward "Jack" Gowdy (Curt's father was a manager and dispatcher for theUnion Pacific railroad[1]), Curtis Edward (Curt) Gowdy was born inGreen River, Wyoming, and moved toCheyenne at age six. As a high school basketball player in the 1930s, he led the state in scoring. He also showed an early interest in journalism, serving as sports editor of his high school newspaper.[2] He enrolled at theUniversity of Wyoming inLaramie, where he was a 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) starter on the basketball team and played varsity tennis, lettering three years in both sports for the Cowboys. He was also a member of theAlpha Tau Omega fraternity.[citation needed]
After graduating in 1942 with a degree in business statistics, he entered the army, where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.[3] Gowdy planned to become a fighter pilot, but a ruptured disk in his spine from a previous sports injury cut short his military service in the Air Force, leading to a medical discharge in 1943. Gowdy would continue to suffer from persistent back problems for many years.[4]
In November 1943, recovering from back surgery, Gowdy made his broadcasting debut in Cheyenne calling a "six-man" high school football game from atop a wooden grocery crate in subzero weather, with about 15 people in attendance. He found he had a knack for broadcasting, and worked at the small KFBC radio station and at theWyoming Eagle newspaper as a sportswriter (and later sports editor). After several years in Cheyenne, he accepted an offer from CBS'sKOMA radio in Oklahoma City in September 1945.[5] He was hired primarily to broadcastOU college football (then coached by new-hireBud Wilkinson) andOSU college basketball games (then coached byHank Iba). In 1947–1948, in addition to calling football and basketball on KOMA, Gowdy was also broadcasting the baseball games of theTexas League Oklahoma City Indians, on station KOCY.[6] When Gowdy announced in early 1949 that he was leaving Oklahoma to work in New York, his replacement was fellow Oklahoma City sportscaster Bob Murphy.[7]
Gowdy's distinctiveplay-by-play style during his broadcasts of minor league baseball, college football, and college basketball in Oklahoma City earned him a national audition and then an opportunity with theNew York Yankees in 1949, working with (and learning from)Mel Allen for two seasons.[citation needed]
In June 1949, Curt married Geraldine "Jerre" Dawkins. She had a bachelor's degree in education fromCentral State College, and was studying for a master's degree in Radio Speech at the University of Oklahoma when they became engaged.[8] Curt and Jerre had three children: Cheryl Ann Gowdy, Curtis Edward Gowdy Jr. (who worked as a sports producer for ABC andSNY),[9] and Trevor Gowdy. Curt's nickname was affectionately The Cowboy.
Gowdy began his Major League Baseball broadcasting career working as the No. 2 announcer to Mel Allen for Yankees games on radio and television in 1949–50. There, he succeededRuss Hodges, who departed to become theNew York Giants' lead announcer when the Yankees and Giants decided to broadcast a full slate of 154 games, instead of sharing the same radio network and announcers for the 77 home games of each team that had been broadcast (no away games of either team were broadcast). Two years later, theRed Sox and theBoston Braves followed a similar path, with each team opting for its own networks and announcers to allow each team to broadcast their full schedules, home and away.Jim Britt, who had called home games of both teams, decided to stay with the Braves, opening the top spot on the Red Sox broadcast team.[10]
In April 1951 at the age of 31, Gowdy began his tenure as the lead announcer for the Red Sox. For the next 15 years, he called the exploits of generally mediocre Red Sox teams onWHDH radio and on three Boston TV stations:WBZ-TV,WHDH-TV, andWNAC-TV (WBZ and WNAC split the Red Sox TV schedule from 1948 through 1955; WBZ alone carried the Red Sox from 1955 through 1957; and WHDH took over in 1958). During that time, Gowdy partnered with two future baseball broadcasting legends:Bob Murphy andNed Martin. Chronic back pain caused Gowdy to miss the entire 1957 season. He also did nightly sports reports on WHDH radio when his schedule permitted. Gowdy was also the narrator of several Red Sox highlight films during his tenure in Boston which described the season in depth along with its key moments; this would lead to him eventually narrating World Series highlight films during his time with NBC (1968–1974, '77).[citation needed]
Gowdy calledTed Williams' final at-bat where he hit a home run into the bullpen in right-center field offJack Fisher of Baltimore. He also calledTony Conigliaro's home run in his first at-bat atFenway Park on April 17, 1964, at the age of 19.[citation needed]
He left WHDH after the 1965 season forNBC Sports, where for the next ten years he called the national baseball telecasts of the Saturday afternoonGame of the Week andMonday Night Baseball during the regular season (and theAll-Star Game in July), and the postseason playoffs andWorld Series in October.[citation needed]
Following a stint callingNBA games for NBC from 1955 to 1960, Gowdy moved toABC, where he teamed withPaul Christman to covercollege football in 1960 and 1961 and theAmerican Football League from 1962 to 1964. On February 27, 1966, Gowdy called his final major event for ABC, the1966 Daytona 500 which aired as part of the long running sports anthology seriesWide World of Sports.
In the fall of 1965, he moved full-time to NBC, with whom he would be employed for over a decade. Gowdy was the lead play-by-play announcer for the network for both theAmerican Football League (AFC from 1970 on) andMajor League Baseball, but Gowdy also covered a wide range of sports, earning him the nickname of the "broadcaster of everything." He called the 1969 Final Four in Louisville and during the closest played game of the tournament, the semi-final between UCLA and Drake, he confused Drake with Duke, mistakenly calling the Drake Bulldogs by the wrong name no fewer than three times. It was Drake that came within three points of upsetting the mighty Bruins.
Besides Christman, who followed him from ABC to NBC, Gowdy's other football broadcast partners wereKyle Rote,Al DeRogatis,Don Meredith,John Brodie, andMerlin Olsen. His broadcast partners for baseball includedPee Wee Reese,Tony Kubek,Sandy Koufax, andJoe Garagiola. He also had many different partners for basketball, includingTommy Hawkins andBilly Packer. DeRogatis was also Gowdy's partner for college football games.
After the1975 World Series, he was removed from NBC's baseball telecasts, when sponsorChrysler insisted on havingJoe Garagiola, who was their spokesman in many commercials, be the lead play-by-play voice. While Gowdy was on hand in the press box forCarlton Fisk's home run in Game 6 of the1975 Series, the calls were made by two of Gowdy's Red Sox successors,Dick Stockton on TV andNed Martin on radio. Gowdy was Martin's color man on that home run. Gowdy returned to the NBC World Series broadcast in 1978 as "Host" with Garagiola handling play-by-play and Kubek andTom Seaver providing color.[11] After umpireFrank Pulli decided not to call interference on a significant base-running play involvingReggie Jackson in Game 4 of the1978 Series, Gowdy interviewed Pulli on NBC shortly before Game 5 began.
He continued as NBC's lead NFL announcer through the 1978 season, with his final broadcast beingSuper Bowl XIII betweenPittsburgh andDallas. With NBC anxious to promoteDick Enberg to the lead NFL position, NBC orchestrated a “trade” withCBS for the up-and-comingDon Criqui, who enjoyed a long career with NBC.[12] After switching networks, Gowdy called NFL games on CBS for two seasons with former Kansas City Chiefs head coachHank Stram, and also didbaseball on radio. He returned to ABC to call regional college football in 1982 and 1983. In 1987, Gowdy was the radio voice of theNew England Patriots.
In 1976, when Gowdy otherwise still worked for NBC, he was loaned to ABC to work on theirSummer Olympicscoverage in Montreal. Gowdy calledswimming withDonna de Varona andbasketball withBill Russell.
Curt Gowdy was present for some of American sports' storied moments, including Ted Williams' home run in his final at-bat in 1960,Super Bowl I, theAFL's"Heidi" game of1968, and (after the 1968 pro football season) the thirdAFL-NFL World Championship game (Super Bowl III) in whichJoe Namath and theNew York Jets defeated the NFL championBaltimore Colts. Two years later inSuper Bowl V, Gowdy called the dramatic 16–13 Colts' win over Dallas. The next year in 1971, Gowdy's telecast on NBC caused many a Christmas dinner to be delayed as the country locked in that Christmas Day to the longest game in pro football history when theMiami Dolphins defeated theKansas City Chiefs 27–24 in the final game at Kansas City'sMunicipal Stadium. He also coveredFranco Harris' "Immaculate Reception" of1972,Clarence Davis' miraculous catch in a "sea of hands" fromOakland Raiders quarterbackKen Stabler, to defeat theMiami Dolphins in the final seconds of a legendary 1974 AFC playoff game, andHank Aaron's 715thhome run in 1974.
Gowdy endeared himself to long-suffering American Football League fans when it was learned that in an off-air break towards the end of a game, he asked rhetorically:"“I want to seeTex Maule, that —————.”", a reference to theSports Illustrated writer who for years had denigrated theAFL.[13] On-air, in contrast to some of his contemporary announcers of NFL games, he avoided their hyperbole and transparent adulation of players, and gave steady, nonpartisan, but colorful descriptions ofAFL games.[citation needed] Gowdy was also known for the occasional malapropism, including a consoling comment just after theRed Sox lost the1975 World Series: "Their future is ahead of them!"[citation needed]
Over the course of a career that stretched into the 1980s, Gowdy covered pro football (both theAFL andNFL),Major League Baseball,college football, andcollege basketball. He was involved in the broadcast of 13World Series, 16 baseball All-Star Games, 9 Super Bowls, 14Rose Bowls, 8Olympic Games and 24NCAA Final Fours. He also hosted the long-running outdoors showThe American Sportsman onABC.
Gowdy called all the Olympic Games televised by ABC from 1964 to 1988 withRoone Arledge's sports department at ABC.
In the mid-1970s, Gowdy was host and producer ofThe Way It Was, forPBS, and in later years provided historic commentary forInside the NFL, onHBO.
Gowdy was also close friends with Arledge, and acknowledged that he gives Arledge all the credit for making ABC what it is today, including the creation of the network's sports department, and the innovations for televising sporting events that made the sports departments at NBC and CBS jealous. The two were the creators, and first producers for theWide World of Sports television show.
In1970, he was coveted by ABC's Arledge for the newMonday Night Football, but Gowdy was bound by his contract to NBC Sports (although he continued withGrits Gresham ofNatchitoches, Louisiana, to hostThe American Sportsman on ABC).
Gowdy was said to have a warm, slightly gravelly voice and an unforced, easy style that set him apart from his peers. (AuthorJohn Updike once described him as sounding "like everybody's brother-in-law.") Unlike many well-known sportscasters, Gowdy never developedcatchphrases or signature calls, but merely described the action in a straightforward manner. Examples:
Jack Fisher into his windup, here's the pitch...Williams swings, and there's a long drive to deep right...it could be...it could be...IT IS! A home run for Ted Williams, in his last time at bat in the major leagues!
— Calling Williams' final career at-bat on September 28, 1960.
The ball's hit deep... deep...it is gone! He did it! He did it!Henry Aaron... is the all-time home run... leader now!
— Calling Aaron's 715th career home run on April 8, 1974.
Gowdy's career wound down afterThe American Sportsman was canceled in 1985.
He briefly came out of retirement in1987 to call theNew England Patriots on radio, and in1988 he returned to NBC to call September NFL games withMerlin Olsen and old partnerAl DeRogatis, while Olsen's regular partnerDick Enberg was covering theSummer Olympics inSeoul.
In May 2003, a few months shy of his 84th birthday, Gowdy called aRed Sox–Yankees game fromFenway Park, as part of theESPN Major League Baseball "Living Legends" series. At the end of the broadcast, he thought he could have done better. ESPN'sChris Berman said,"We'll give you another chance." Gowdy replied,"Call me back."
Gowdy also co-hosted theDrum Corps International Championships on PBS from 1989 to 1993 with Steve Rondinaro.[14]
Gowdy made cameo appearances in the moviesThe Naked Gun (1988) andSummer Catch (2001), and his voice can be heard inHeaven Can Wait (1978) andBASEketball (1998).
In the 1950s and '60s, 'Curt Gowdy did pre-recorded and live commercials for Red Sox sponsorNarragansett Beer. His voice speaking the famous line: "Hi Neighbor, have a 'Gansett" was known to Red Sox fans everywhere.[15]In the 1980s, Gowdy voiced a series of beer commercials forGenesee. Essentially, these ads had an outdoor enthusiast theme, with Curt's tag line being "Genesee – the great outdoors in a glass."
Gowdy, who also did some sportswriting during his early broadcasting days, wrote two books:Cowboy at the Mike (1966), withAl Hirshberg, andSeasons to Remember: The Way It Was in American Sports, 1945–1960 (1993), withJohn Powers. He also wrote the foreword for the 2000 bookThe Golden Boy, authored by Dr. George I. Martin, in which Gowdy described the subject of the book,Jackie Jensen, as possibly the best athlete he had ever covered.
In 1963, Gowdy purchased radio stationsWCCM andWCCM-FM inLawrence, Massachusetts, later changing the FM station's call letters to WCGY to somewhat match his name. Gowdy also owned several radio stations in Wyoming, includingKOWB andKCGY inLaramie. He sold his broadcast interests in Massachusetts in 1994 and his Wyoming stations in 2002. He also ownedWEAT andWEAT-FM inWest Palm Beach, Florida, andWBBX in New Hampshire. The year away from broadcasting the Red Sox in 1957 awakened him to the fact that he might need an alternate way of making a living, leading to his interest in station ownership.
In 1970, Gowdy became the first sportscaster to receive theGeorge Foster Peabody Award. TheNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association named Gowdy as Massachusetts Sportscaster of the Year five times (1959–1963) and National Sportscaster of the Year twice (1966, 1969), and inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1981. In 1985, he was inducted into theAmerican Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame along with his onetime Yankees partner Mel Allen and Chicago legendJack Brickhouse. He served as the organization's vice president and was a member of its board of directors. In addition, he was given theFord C. Frick Award from theNational Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, thePete Rozelle Award from thePro Football Hall of Fame in 1993 and a lifetime achievementEmmy in 1992, and was selected to theBoston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2000. Gowdy was president of theNaismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for several years, and that institution'sCurt Gowdy Media Award is presented annually to outstanding basketball writers and broadcasters; he was one of its first two recipients.
Curt Gowdy's 23 Halls of Fame honors/inductions:
A state park in Wyoming, opened in 1971, was officially named for Gowdy on March 27, 1972, one of numerous honors bestowed on the native son from the state of Wyoming on "Curt Gowdy Day." The 11,000 acres (45 km2)Curt Gowdy State Park is halfway between his high school hometown of Cheyenne and his college town of Laramie. Additional land was acquired by the state for the park in 2006. "It has two beautiful lakes, hiking trails, camping, boating, fishing, and beauty," said Gowdy. "It has everything I love. What greater honor can a man receive?"
Gowdy was proud of his Wyoming heritage and loved the outdoors, and said that he was "born with a fly-rod in one hand," and that the sports microphone came a little later. In 2002, he recalled that his father, Edward Curtis Gowdy, who had taught him to hunt and fish, was the best fly-fisherman in the state. "We had free access to prime-time fishing and hunting. The outdoors was a way of life for me. I should have paid them to hostThe American Sportsman."
On July 31, 2013, on the 94th anniversary of his birth, the state park opened an interpretive center with exhibits about the history of the park and Gowdy's work to preserve area natural resources. Milward Simpson, director of the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources Department, describes the 7,400-square foot building, which also includes meeting rooms and a lobby, as a monument to the "fantastic legacy" left by Gowdy.[19]
Gowdy died at the age of 86 at his winter home inPalm Beach, Florida, after an extended battle withleukemia. His funeral procession circled Fenway Park and he was interred inMount Auburn Cemetery inCambridge, Massachusetts. Pallbearers included his former NBC baseball broadcast partner and New York Yankees shortstopTony Kubek.
On October 12, 2006, theUnited States Postal Service building inGreen River, Wyoming, was officially designated as the "Curt Gowdy Post Office Building," honoring the place of Gowdy's birth. The legislation required for the USPS name change was introduced by Wyoming House RepresentativeBarbara Cubin.[20]
| Preceded by | World Series network television play-by-play announcer (withHarry Caray in1964 andJoe Garagiola in1975) 1964 1966–1975 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | American television prime time anchor,Winter Olympic Games 1972 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by First | Super Bowl television play-by-play announce (AFC package carrier) 1966–1978 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lead play-by-play announcer,Major League Baseball on NBC 1966–1975 (alternated withJoe Garagiola from 1974 to 1975) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lead play-by-playannouncer, Major League Baseball Game of the Week 1966–1975 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
| Other | |
