A long time ago (in the 80s?) the NFL experimented with an announcer-less game. It didn’t catch on. You really had to pay attention!
It was a Jets-Dolphins game, in 1980; the experiment was primarily the idea of Don Ohlmeyer, who led NBC’s telecasts of NFL games. I remember watching it, and I quite enjoyed it. Though it was apparently reasonably well-received, the sense I have is that it was felt that it didn’t do enough to engage viewers in the game, and it was never tried again.
It’d be easier to do today, at least technologically, as the networks have much greater graphics capabilities than they did in 1980, to communicate more information on-screen. But, I suspect that most viewers wouldn’t like it.
Here’s a recording of the game broadcast, though it’s of kind of low quality; it appears to be someone’s VCR recording of the broadcast that has been digitized.
Don’t know if this was cleared up. Howard Cosell was never a host of the Saturday Night Live TV show that most people know. He has a brief disastrous run on his own show called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. The show we now know as SNL originally had the name NBC’s Saturday Night.
My favorite in the field of Motor Sports was Chris Economaki, because he had a funny name and a voice I could imitate. And of course who can forget the Dean of Professional Wrestling, Gordon Solie.
As a fan of motorsports, my vote goes to Bob Jenkins. Whether the Indy 500, a NASCAR race or a Saturday night midget race from a small dirt track he was the best.
The Indianapolis 500 broadcast to listen to is the radio broadcast. It’s a full team effort, and they keep you in the race. For most of Indianapolis, it’s the only way to listen, other than going to the race itself, since it’s nearly always blacked out locally.
And, up until 1986, either being at the Speedway, or listening to it on the radio, were the only ways to experience the race in real time; the TV broadcast was tape-delayed, and shown later in the day (apparently at the direction of the track owners, to maximize attendance).
I have fond memories of listening to the radio broadcast of the 500, in my family’s basement in the late '70s, while playing with my AFX slot car track.
I think people will think the best announcers will be the ones they first listen to. I started enjoying baseball in the mid 70s and listening to Expos games with Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider on the radio. On the TV side, there was Ken Singleton for a while among others and I think he did radio occasionally. There were others of course over the years but I don’t think I ever thought some were bad, not the way a lot of White Sox fans talk about Ken Harrelson being terrible, but I never heard him. And being only a baseball guy, I can’t comment on other sports nor until the internet on other teams’ broadcasters. Dave and Duke were familiar voices and I learned baseball from them, I think they realized some in the audience were new to the game and would explain some of the rules and nuances as needed. I had heard of Vin Scully and once I could listen to him, he had a certain style too, I can see why Dodger fans liked him much like Dave van Horne was beloved by Expos fans.
Nope. That would be Lou Holtz.
I used to like Collinsworth but he tends to gush over certain favorite players and it gets wearisome. He was so over-the-top disgusting defending Aaron Rodgers last season after his vaccine bullshit last season that I actually yelled at the TV, “Would you shut the fuck up already about Rodgers?!”
(Doesn’t help that it was a Bears game and I’m a Bears fan, but it truly was disgusting. He actually praised Rodgers for his honesty about lying.)
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Jim Nantz. A consummate professional on every conceivable sport.
I never lived in Los Angeles, but I got to hear a fair amount of Scully’s work when he did NFL games for CBS in the '70s and '80s, and MLB games for NBC in the '80s. Similarly, I got to hear Jack Buck (the longtime St. Louis Cardinals announcer, and Joe’s father) when he did NFL games on TV, and on the radio, at about that same time.
They were both outstanding, and versatile, announcers.
In my case, that would be Dan Daniels and John McLean.
I’ve just recently started watching baseball again and have been very impressed with the group that calls the Mets’ games: Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling.
I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about baseball and the rules, but have been frequently brought up short by these guys’ understanding of the nuances. Maybe that’s to be expected with Hernandez and Darling since they played the game, and both had a reputation for being very smart. But even they defer to Cohen’s knowledge of some fairly arcane rules. Impressive that he was never a player and has that level of understanding.
They are also fun to listen to, when the Mets are winning or not.
Then I grew up in a Golden Age: Vin Scully and Chick Hearn.
Howard Cosell actually hosted SNL once, on April 13, 1985. The musical guest was Greg Kihn.
Sorry about that. I thought he had done it, looked for it and missed it, so figured I was wrong. Which in the end I was anyway.
Dan Shulman is just incredibly good at baseball announcing.
It’s always a pleasure to watch TNT’s NBA studio team of Shaq, Barkley, Smith and Johnson. Sure wish they would find a way to let them cover the Finals.
Lost the best ever (in my opinion), Vin Scully. 67 years with the same team. Being able to hold a radio or tv audience as a solo announcer is a dead art. No one will be like him again.
The Mets team is excellent. When the Yankees rotation of announcers included Ken Singleton it was close. The Yankees booth team is fine when it’s some combination of Michael Kay, Paul O’Neill and David Cone. When they add in newcomers Cameron Maybin and Carlos Beltran they are so much worse. Maybin is bad and too talkative. Beltran may be one of the worst I’ve ever heard.
Vin Scully. Died yesterday (Aug 2nd). A true icon not only of Los Angeles but baseball.